Brief Research Report: Pilot testing an identity-based relevance-writing intervention to support developmental community college students’ persistence

Abstract

We pilot tested an identity-based relevance-writing intervention designed to support developmental community college students’ (N = 54) educational commitment, value, and persistence. The intervention was embedded within regular journal assignments in two study skills courses with a third section serving as a comparison group. The intervention prompted students to explore how course topics connected to their identity. Results indicated large differences between groups in identity connections made in assignments and follow-up educational commitment and moderate differences in follow-up task value, all favoring the intervention group. There were no differences between groups in course enrollment eight months later. This pilot study offers promising preliminary evidence that an identity-based relevance-writing intervention may be effective in supporting developmental community college students’ academic persistence.

Keywords:

• Motivation
• developmental education
• relevance writing interventions
• identity exploration
• community college

Notes

1 It should be noted that we do not advocate for learning styles or “preferences” (a component of this course) as a topic for student success courses.

2 See supplemental materials for the scoring rubric.