Dissertation Abstract

Integrated Skills Reinforcement in Radiologic Technology at Hostos Community College.

Integrated Skills Reinforcement or ISR is a holistic and integrated approach to instruction with the expressed purpose of improving students' communication skills within the pedagogical framework of a college content course. The purpose of this project was to utilize the ISR approach to instruction in a Radiologic Technology course.

By specifically designing course materials and instructional strategies that focused on basic skills reinforcement within the content area of Radiologic Technology, this project attempted to improve the reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills of the student participants.

The project consisted of three phases: the planning or development phase, the implementation phase, and the assessment phase.

During the planning phase a Learning Guide was developed for student use during the course and a Teaching Guide was prepared which outlined ISR strategies and activities to be utilized by the instructor.

During the implementation phase this guide was used as a blueprint for instruction. The assessment phase attempted to evaluate both the effectiveness of the project as well as the learning skills improvement of students.

The results of these assessments indicated that the project was successful in both of these areas. Project assessment showed that ISR strategies had enhanced content learning by involving students more in the learning process and engaging students in the process of critical thinking. Students began to take more responsibility for their learning and the classroom environment became more active and collaborative. Assessment of students' skills improvement focused primarily on writing and speaking and many students demonstrated improvement in these skills throughout the semester.

The evaluation tools used for skills assessment included holistic scoring as well as teacher and peer evaluations of writing and speaking.

This project is important because it demonstrated that ISR can be effective in a highly technical, science-oriented course without sacrificing content. In fact, student comprehension and understanding of content was enhanced by ISR activities and collaborative learning. ISR strategies also provided students with the opportunity to cultivate their communication skills which is an essential component of their professional development as health care practitioners.

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