“The More Mistakes You Have the Better You Could Improve”: Two Students’ Interpretations of Pedagogy in Developmental and College English

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article explores the learning experiences of two students in the same college-level English course at Urban Serving Community College (USCC) (pseudonym). The objective was to understand how one student met with success and the other failure despite both successfully completing their developmental English course the semester prior. I observed 19 class sessions throughout the semester, interviewed the professor twice, and interviewed the students at the end of the course. The analysis drew upon the field notes, interviews, and course documents (i.e., syllabus, rubric, assignments, etc.). The key feature of the professor’s course design and pedagogy was to provide students detailed feedback on their writing assignments according to the expectation for college-level writing and then provide opportunities to revise and resubmit. The student who failed the course consistently interpreted the professor’s feedback as telling him what to write; thus, he was never able to revise his essays in ways that would meet the expectations for college-level writing. The student who interpreted the feedback as indicating areas where she needed to communicate more clearly her ideas according to the expectations for college-level writing developed her ability to independently write college-level essays. The findings suggest assessments focusing students upon developing revision practices better positions them to succeed; however, some students might not be prepared to interpret those assessment practices in productive ways.