The Academic Experiences Survey (AES): Measuring Perceptions of Academic Climate in Liberal Arts Institutions

Andrea Nixon,Courtney Mcmanus,Kathleen Marie Galotti,Lacey R Clare

doi:10.14434//josotl.v16i5.19405

Andrea Nixon, Courtney Mcmanus + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.14434//josotl.v16i5.19405

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Abstract

The Academic Experiences Survey (AES) consists of five scales: Comfortable in College (feeling at ease, at one’s educational institution), Skills (feeling mastery of writing, critical thinking, reading, and other academic skills), Interdisciplinary Understanding (seeing connections among different disciplines), Liberal Arts Integration (understanding what and how different disciplines contribute to a liberal education), and Future Academic Plans (making course, major, sophomore housing, and first-year summer choices with an eye toward future goals). We present data on different scales’ prediction of retention in college, and enrollment in STEM courses, and longitudinal changes over the course of students’ first year in college.

Highlights

Colleges and universities are currently finding themselves accountable—to the federal government, to students, parents, accrediting bodies, trustees, and donors—to document that their offerings lead to real and lasting educational change (e.g., U.S Department of Education, 2006)
We describe the development and testing of a new instrument, the Academic Experiences Survey (AES), designed to measure students’ perceptions of several dimensions of a liberal arts experience and demonstrate its utility in examining the critical issue of retention at the institutional level and in STEM courses
We looked for gender differences on scale scores, again separately by institution

Summary

Introduction

We describe the development and testing of a new instrument, the Academic Experiences Survey (AES), designed to measure students’ perceptions of several dimensions of a liberal arts experience and demonstrate its utility in examining the critical issue of retention at the institutional level and in STEM courses. These scales, with example items, include the following: Comfortable at College (“I feel comfortable/at ease most of the time when I am at [College 1]”), Skills (“I have strong critical thinking skills”), Interdisciplinary Understanding (“I understand the connections among different disciplines, such as the humanities, sciences, and social sciences”), Liberal Arts Understanding (“My classes this term offer me a reasonable and broad view of intellectual inquiry”), and Future (Academic) Plans (“In the future I plan to take classes that build on what I’m learning in my current classes”).

Results

Conclusion