Reflection on Course Outcomes:
Analysis of Student Survey Responses, Standardized Instruments, and Student Work
Fall 1999
During the Fall 1999, I administered interviews to both my team-taught section of IDST 2310 Fine and Applied Arts in Civilization course and a team-taught section of IDST 2205 Global Issues in Society. I designed the questions to probe student understanding of interdisciplinarity, their awareness of diverse disciplinary perspectives, their thoughts on what was most and least valuable about the course. I also included several questions about specific assignments to flush out the level of interdisciplinary analysis present. I am indebted to Dr. Derek Alderman, then an Assistant professor of Geography in the GC&SU Department of History and Geography, for creating the online interactive survey for me and running it through his Geocities forms account. The following links call up nonfunctional versions (one cannot complete and submit them) of the online surveys:
IDST 2310 The Fine and Applied Arts in Civilization Fall 1999 survey form
IDST
2205 Global Issues in Society Fall 1999 survey form
The following discussion focuses on the results of the student interviews at the end of the fall 1999 semester in IDST 2310 The Fine and Applied Arts, and analyzes them in comparison to the information obtained through the Jackson Personality Inventory, the Measure of Epistemological Reflection, the students' actual course work and, finally, the surveys in the IDST 2205 class. (*Note: I have not altered in any way the spelling, grammar, or content of the student online submissions to the survey. Hence, the huge number of spelling and other errors in the student responses! In several cases, I have used portions of a response rather than its entirety. Viewers may read the students' full responses to the survey elsewhere.)
The student surveys and results of other instruments used during fall 1999 confirmed the tendency of interdisciplinary courses to produce the outcomes described in the overview section of this portfolio. The various data I collected, however, tends to suggest that several factors contribute to these outcomes. The global perspective of the Fine and Applied Arts in Civ course and active and cooperative learning significantly contribute to these outcomes. Further, my research provides some important insights into the mechanism through which interdisciplinary courses produce the outcomes charted in the literature. When asked to describe an interdisciplinary course, students universally tended to mention those aspects of their interdisciplinary course that were in direct conflict with their JPI profiles. Students also tended to say that they learned more from active learning contexts, even when the thrust of the assignment was counter to their JPI profiles. My research into student perceptions over the course of four semesters suggests that the most effective interdisciplinary environment is one in which students confront material which conflicts with their personality traits or learning styles, and must synthesize that material with more familiar or comfortable material within an active learning context. The fall 1999 survey also highlighted for me, however, the need to enhance the interdisciplinary approach of the course. To explore my findings in detail, please click on any of the following links:
Student
concepts of interdisciplinarity
Student
perceptions of the role of pedagogical techniques
Student
comments on the impact of this course on other areas of their studies
or lives