An Experiment with Grouping of Freshman English Composition Students

FOR AT LEAST a decade exciting developments have been taking place in the teaching of English at all levels. Whether stimulating, effective experi ences also have been the rule in student learning and the development of writing skills may still be somewhat in doubt, early returns appear to be en couraging. However, some disturbing e 1 e m e n ts are evident including the never-ending waves of en tering students and the reports of Kitzhaberand oth ers that all is not well in the teaching and learning of freshman English composition. Having followed Project English closely, English chairmen and freshman instructors were offered en couragement by early conclusions that ''Project English is producing". (1) That helpful results are even now in evidence and that the enormous influ ence of this movement and other efforts at improve ment of instruction are only beginning are hearten ing indeed. The inevitable question and classic challenge for those concerned with freshman English is, "Of what value is it all if business at the old stand is run in the same old way?" Attempting to meet this chal lenge, Augusta College began a search in early 1964 for a reasonable response to some of the develop ments in English instruction within the past few years. We begain with the question, "What must be our response to the freshman enrollment trends of to day?" Students are entering college from a variety of high school programs, including the good and not so-good regular programs, special college prepar atory programs, and differing types of advanced or accelerated honors courses. Moreover, the rapid rise of the junior college movement throughout the country continues in reality to make every high school student a potential college preparatory stu dent What methods are colleges to use in ef f ec tively classifying this mass of students for instruc tional purposes? How are overflowing freshman English classes to be handled with students having such varied backgrounds? Can efficient, valid meth ods be divised for classifying the able student who already has a mastery of much of what is tradition ally taught in college freshman classes? Do chance scheduling or limited classification schemes place bright students with reasonably proficient writing skills in the teaching-learning situation conducive to continuing growth and stimulation ? Are average students wasting too much time in classes dominated by the gifted with rich backgrounds or by the less able who have inadequate backgrounds or poor po tential? Do the marked differences with respect to abilities, interests, motivation, and academic back ground of students in non-grouped classes enrich the teaching-learning of good writing skills, or should students be segregated in some way to make better use of the human resources available? If so, what are the discriminating criteria to be used? Do honor courses per se solve the problem or does this approach neglect the average student? Clear un equivocal answers to these and related questions would make the work of the college administration much more tolerable. That the resources of both faculty and students could be utilized more efficiently in classes of stu dents with similar abilities and motivation seem s to be plausible, but what evidence is there to support this hypothesis in the face of current trends? The inconclusive results of some efforts in the early 1930's to determine the effects of special grouping in higher education is recognized, but significant is the fact that no reported recent research of this type undertaken under conditions different from the pre vious efforts was found. Could the increased num ber of students from a variety of preparatory pro grams significantly change conditions under which freshman English should be taught today?