Date of Award
5-2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Abstract
This case study provides the thirty-year history of the developmental program known as the New Center for Multidisciplinary Studies at Minnesota State University Moorhead, a unique alternative-admissions program for underprepared students. A review of literature on Benjamin Bloom's mastery learning approach, the history of developmental education, and the history of experimentation in higher education revealed the strengths and weaknesses of mastery learning, the primary approach used at the New Center at the beginning of the program, and also provided the socio-political-educational context for its initiation. In seeking to find out how the program started, how it has changed over the years, and how it has succeeded so long when other programs with similar missions have been cut, absorbed, or restructured, the researcher used qualitative research methods, including interviews with administrators, faculty, and students from throughout the thirty years studied (1971-2001) and analysis of college documents and archives that revealed the dominant themes of innovations, frustrations, and survival-to-acceptance.
The analysis of qualitative data revealed that the New Center faculty experimented greatly in the early years and then turned to a more traditional approach, changing the curriculum as the student body and faculty changed. Stigma from being mistakenly perceived as a remedial program, as well as its location and physical condition, led to many students experiencing shame at being placed in the program. Faculty outside the New Center who resisted the program exacerbated the stigma. It took almost fifteen years for the program to gain respect and acceptance from those outside the program.
The program was sustained by quality leadership, dedicated faculty, and successful students who eventually won over the doubting administration and faculty outside the program. Analysis of the history of the program provided a series of lessons learned for the New Center that can be generalized to a degree for universities currently considering implementing a program to assist underprepared students at their institutions. The lessons learned led to a number of recommendations for the New Center as it moves into its fourth decade as well as recommendations for other universities.
Recommended Citation
Jonason, Maureen Kelly, ""An arm around the shoulder and a kick in the pants"; Thirty years of assisting underprepared students at Minnesota State University Moorhead's new center for multidisciplinar studies" (2004). Theses and Dissertations. 7465.
https://commons.und.edu/theses/7465