Objective: Beyond understanding whether first-year student success interventions in community colleges are effective—for which there is mixed evidence in the literature—this study’s purpose was to uncover how they work to realize observed outcomes, including at times unanticipated undesirable outcomes. Method: This qualitative multiple case study used cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) to unpack interactions and tensions among programmatic-level features and individual-level experiences and actions. We conducted classroom observation, document analysis, and interviews with instructors and students in four student success courses across diverse contexts. Results: Regardless of particular designs and course emphases, we found in all cases a blurring of activity elements, wherein learning tools and learning goals were often coterminous, or instructors effectively took on the role of learning tools themselves, in the form of object lessons and mediators, for instance. Courses had a distinctive character as rehearsal for college that simultaneously created a welcoming peer environment but an uncertain learning and assessment environment. Contributions: Because of their nature as metacourses—college courses about college-going—success courses’ means and ends ultimately may be functionally inseparable, thus helping to explain their continual evolution and contested roles. Whereas such courses are typically justified as means to teach college skills, we found this utilitarian rationale to be insufficient to describe the experiential dimensions of social learning that participants reported. Instead, we found these courses reveal how college-going is an emergent social literacy, one that a single course is insufficient to fully realize.

中文翻译：

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最佳计划：社区大学学生成功课程如何运作

目标：除了了解社区大学一年级学生成功干预是否有效（文献中存在混合证据）之外，本研究的目的是揭示他们如何工作以实现观察到的结果，有时包括意外的不良结果。方法：这项定性的多案例研究使用文化历史活动理论 (CHAT) 来解开程序级特征与个人级体验和行动之间的相互作用和紧张关系。我们在不同背景下的四门学生成功课程中对教师和学生进行了课堂观察、文件分析和访谈。结果：不管具体的设计和课程重点如何，我们发现在所有情况下活动元素都变得模糊，其中学习工具和学习目标通常是共同的，或教师有效地承担了学习工具本身的角色，例如以实物课程和调解员的形式。课程具有独特的性质，作为大学的排练，同时创造了一个受欢迎的同伴环境，但一个不确定的学习和评估环境。贡献：由于它们作为元课程的性质——关于上大学的大学课程——成功课程的手段和目的最终可能在功能上是不可分割的，从而有助于解释它们的持续演变和有争议的角色。虽然此类课程通常被证明是教授大学技能的手段，但我们发现这种功利主义的理由不足以描述参与者报告的社会学习的体验维度。相反，我们发现这些课程揭示了上大学是一种新兴的社会素养，