Abstract
General education (GE) classes are designed to reflect the mission and goals of the university and to help students become more well-rounded, career-ready, and civically-minded post-graduation. Students’ perceptions of these courses have a significant influence on their capacity to succeed, and ultimately to get the most out of their college experience. Using results from an email questionnaire sent to students at a private university in the western United States, we analyze the relationships between perceptions of the GE experience, sense of community, and academic year, and we find that sense of community is positively associated with perceptions of GEs. These results also show freshmen having a higher sense of community than juniors or seniors, and that scholastic class in school is negatively associated with satisfaction with GEs. Furthermore, we find that seniors generally have a lower perception of the importance of GEs in their lives when compared to freshmen.
Highlights
Interdisciplinary general education programs are required in approximately 95% of undergraduate degree programs throughout the United States (Bittinger, 2017)
This study seeks to understand how students’ sense of community (SOC) influences perceptions of their General education (GE) experiences, and compares GE perceptions across scholastic class levels The first contribution of this research is that we find that SOC is consistently positively associated with student perceptions of their GE experience
Higher levels of student SOC within the campus are associated with higher levels of perceived importance of knowledge gained from GE courses in their lives, satisfaction with GE classes, and importance of receiving a broad university education (Tables 4–6)
Summary
Interdisciplinary general education programs are required in approximately 95% of undergraduate degree programs throughout the United States (Bittinger, 2017). Studies investigating how students feel about their GE experiences find that students typically possess more negative feelings than positive ones, though little research examines if or how these perceptions differ by scholastic class (Humphreys & Davenport, 2005; Johnston et al, 1991; Thompson et al, 2015; Twombly, 1992; Vander Schee, 2011). The intention of the present study is to assess the influence that SOC and scholastic class level has on students’ perceptions of their general education experiences. Due to its homogenous student population—a factor which theoretically increases campus SOC (Compas, 1981; McMillan & Chavis, 1986)—as well as its extensive general education requirements, BYU provides an ideal setting for exploring the relationship between general education and SOC
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