Life-Long Learning Based on Student Survey Data

Life-Long Learning Based on Student Survey Data Over the course of the years, faculty has had difficulty developing direct measures of learning for the Life-Learning Learning Component. Consequently, the faculty has agreed to use indirect measures of student learning until such time as definitive, direct measures of learning can be established. The Scales At the request of the Subcommittee to Assess General Education Outcomes, the next three scales were recently developed by the Office of Research, Evaluation and Assessment to establish baseline data related to natural, social and political awareness. These scales will be included in a series of student surveys. The introduction to the item set within each scale reads: To what extent has your experience at MCC influenced your opinions, feelings, and attitudes regarding the following. This Likert-type scale provides the following response options: 5= Very Great Extent, 4= Great Extent, 3= Neutral/Undecided, 2= Limited Extent, 1= Not at All, and 0= Does Not Apply. The surveys follow the standard MCC survey cycle and are administered to three distinct groups of students: first-time students, students who have earned 40 or more credit hours, and graduates. Item content was developed and reviewed by the faculty from the General Education Assessment Subcommittee. It should be noted that these survey items are not designed to be the only measurement used to assess this component; rather, the purpose of these surveys is to identify and clarify student behavior and students impressions of the behavior of others. Social/Cultural Environment. The next scale is the Social/Cultural Environment scale. There are 13 items in this scale. For the purposes of the discussion, items are again grouped according to similar intent. The social/cultural environment items were placed into the following categories: Awareness Beyond Self, Recognition of Differences, and Acceptance of Differences. 1

Awareness Beyond Self. The descriptive statistics for the Awareness Beyond Self items are presented in Table 1. These items reflect awareness of societal needs that extend beyond issues directly related to self. For example, respondents were asked if attending MCC had an influence on how they view committing to influencing social values, helping promote racial understanding. Two participation-type items are also included. These participation items refer to performing volunteer work and participating in a community action program. Through examination of item means, readers should note that respondent mean values are lower for items that refer to participating in events/activities than for items that refer to an understanding of or committing to. As can be seen in Table 12-A, the two items Committing to influencing social values and Helping to promote racial understanding had higher mean values than the two items asking about participation in volunteer work and community action programs. Table 1 Social/Cultural Environment Awareness Beyond Self Item Means Social/Cultural Environment Items N Mean 55. Committing to influencing social values. 401 3.46 1.20 56. Performing volunteer work. 357 3.08 1.26 57. Helping to promote racial understanding. 379 3.32 1.23 58. Participating in a community action program. 344 2.98 1.25 Recognition of Differences. The next set of items involve recognizing that differences exist among people and working toward acquiring the skills to be effective with a wide range of individuals. The Recognition of Differences item mean values are shown in Table 2. The values 2

suggest that MCC has influenced students ability to recognize differences. The content for these items suggest or query respondents about a circumstance that may not have occurred but could occur. In particular, Table 2 refers to items that respondents acknowledge are triggers for recognizing a larger world composed of persons with different thoughts and perspectives on how the social world works. Although we have nothing to compare with this data, the mean values reflect a general acknowledgement that one s community has a wide range of people, persons may have conflicting points of view, and that new and more flexible social skills are necessary to effectively interact and relate to others. Table 2 Social/Cultural Environment Recognition of Differences Item Means Social/Cultural Environment Items N Mean 46. Improving ability to relate to others. 427 3.69 1.07 47. Dealing fairly with a wide range of people. 424 3.79 1.08 48. Acquiring appropriate social skills for use in various situations. 420 3.64 1.14 52. Willing to consider opposing points of view. 421 3.76 1.07 54. Becoming a more effective member in a multicultural society. 408 3.67 1.16 Acceptance of Differences. The last grouping of items refer to students accepting the differences of others and making an effort to become involved and to work with others. These items refer to direct actions for dealing with individuals that are not like themselves. Topics include getting along with others from various cultures, races, or getting along with people whose attitudes and opinions are different What is important about this set of items is 3

that they refer to involvement with others rather than posing a query that may be hypothetical. The mean values for these items suggest that current student respondents have created and practice behavioral episodes that have them interacting with persons different from themselves. The mean values for the Acceptance of Difference items (see Table 3) are the highest among the Social/Cultural Environment items. The mean values indicate that MCC has influenced students ability to accept the differences of others. Table 3 Social/Cultural Environment Acceptance of Differences Item Means Social/Cultural Environment Items N Mean 49. Getting along with people from various cultures, races, backgrounds, etc. 425 3.78 1.14 50. Understanding and appreciating cultural and ethnic differences between people. 420 3.76 1.15 51. Getting along with people whose attitudes and opinions are different from theirs. 423 3.74 1.12 53. Working cooperatively in groups, working as a team member. 427 3.79 1.11 Political Environment There are ten items on the Political Environment scale. These items are grouped according to similar intent in the tables that follow. The Political Environment items were placed into three categories: Awareness of Political Issues, Understanding Political Affairs, and Political Involvement. 4

Items in the Awareness of Political Issues category reflect an awareness of rights, responsibilities and privileges as a citizen and an awareness of global and international issues. Table 4 displays the descriptive statistics for these four items. A mean value of 3.00 suggests that the most frequently chosen response was neutral/undecided. The item Becoming more aware of global and international issues/events has a mean of 3.33 but has a mode of 4, indicating the most frequently chosen response was great extent. Table 4 Awareness of Political Issues Political Environment Items N Mean 31. Recognizing your rights, responsibilities, and privileges as a citizen. 394 3.32 1.20 32. Appreciating & exercising rights, responsibilities, & privileges as a citizen. 393 3.34 1.20 33. Becoming more aware of global & international issues/events. 406 3.33 1.12 34. Understanding international issues (political, economic, etc.) 390 3.19 1.13 The next set of Political Environment items, Understanding Political Affairs, relates to developing an interest and understanding of politics. Table 5 shows the descriptive statistics for these four items. Mean values for these items are slightly lower than those for the Awareness of Political Issues. A mean value in the low 3.00 s would indicate that a large number of respondents are either Undecided/Neutral or MCC s influence on this respondent group is a lesser extent. 5

Table 5 Understanding Political Affairs Political Environment Items N Mean 35. Feeling prepared to participate effectively in the electoral process. 370 3.11 1.20 36. Becoming more aware of local & national political & social issues. 382 3.16 1.21 37. Keeping up with political affairs. 380 3.01 1.18 38. Discussing politics. 372 2.95 1.18 The final set of political environment items is composed of two items reflecting Political Involvement. Table 6 shows that the mean values for these items are the lowest among all the items on the Political Environment scale, indicating students report attending MCC had less of an influence on their becoming involved in politics than on their awareness and understanding of politics. Table 6 Political Involvement Item Characteristics Political Environment Items N Mean 39. Working on a political campaign. 312 2.47 1.18 40. Influencing the political structure. 335 2.60 1.17 Life-Long Learning. Life-Long Learning is MCC s fourth general education component. Life-long Learning involves courses in the General Education component that provides opportunities for 6

students to engage in intellectual inquiry and recognize the value of an interdisciplinary approach to knowledge. General Education courses also provide opportunities for students to cultivate learning-to-learn skills, and through those opportunities, students are encouraged to value learning as an ongoing, lifelong process. The attributes defined by MCC faculty for Lifelong Learning follow: 1. Attributes of Open-minded Inquiry Students will be able to: Value inquiry Know how to locate resources Utilize modern information sources Exchange and share knowledge with others Explore other cultures Explore multiple perspectives 2. Attributes of Personal and Professional Development Attend to physical, emotional, and spiritual development Participate in community Seek and participate in special interest groups and professional organizations Pursue structured learning opportunities, certification, and/or degrees 3. Attributes of an Awareness of the Convergence of Knowledge Seek multiple perspectives Apply learned skills to real world interactions Synthesize information to facilitate application Seek new solutions to new and old problems 7

Perceive learning as an all-pervasive activity in all phases of life A recent student survey collected data for student perception of Lifelong Learning. This scale, like the scales for Natural, Social and Political Awareness, are part of a student survey series designed to collect baseline data. The introduction to the item set reads: To what extent has your experience at MCC influenced your opinions, feelings, and attitudes regarding the following. The Lifelong learning scale relates to students openness to learning and recognition of learning as an ongoing, lifelong process. Like previous scales, the items for this scale are grouped in the tables according to similar intent. The items were placed into the following groups: Assessing Sources, Openness to Learning, and Setting Long-Term Goals. The two items in the Accessing Sources grouping relate to the ability to locate and use information sources. The mean values in Table 7 indicate that respondents believe that MCC courses have improved their ability to access and use information. Table 7 Assessing Sources Item Means Lifelong Learning Items N Mean 59. Locating, screening and organizing information. 428 3.71 1.03 60. Accessing and using a variety of information sources. 434 3.88 1.01 The next set of items relates to becoming more open to change and learning. Table 8 displays the descriptive information for the Openness to Learning Items. The mean values suggest that students did become more open to learning while attending MCC. 8

Table 8 Openness to Learning Item Means Lifelong Learning Items N Mean 61. Becoming more willing to change and learn new things. 434 3.94 1.04 62. Developing openness to new ideas and practices. 435 3.89 1.07 63. Increasing intellectual interests. 434 3.99 1.04 64. Broadening intellectual interests. 432 4.03 1.02 Table 9 displays the final set of Lifelong Learning items. These items relate to developing the ability to set long-term goals and making a commitment to lifelong learning. As with the other Lifelong Learning groupings, respondents indicated that attending MCC did influence their perspective on setting long-term goals. Table 9 Setting Life-long Goals Item Means Lifelong Learning Items N Mean 65. Making and exercising a lifelong commitment to learning. 433 3.96 1.08 66. Learning to formulate and re-shape lifetime goals. 431 3.86 1.07 67. Developing a sense of purpose, value and meaning for life. 423 3.81 1.14 68. Setting long-term or life goals. 426 3.83 1.12 9