Did Anyone Pay Attention? General Assessment On Gender Issues

Submitted by Olga Tsoudis on
Duration
-
Abstract

A general survey on gender issues was given at the beginning of the semester and at the end of the semester. There were two questions for each gender issue: (1) how important is the issue and (2) how much work needs to be done on the issue. The issues focused on the feminist movement, reproductive rights, economic justice, gender and violence, men and masculinity, lgbtq rights, gender and language, gender and the media, gender and politics, social activism and social change. A 5 point Likert scale (not important to very important) was used. Some patterns included: an increase in students checking off "very important"in Week 16 in comparison to Week 2. A decrease in students checking off "not important"  in Week 16 in comparision to Week 2. The majority of students chose either "important" or "very important" as their answers in Week 16, with "not important" receiving 0 responses for most questions in Week 16.

Please see attachment for the assessment questions and the results for Week 2 and Week 16 in two SOC 212 (gender and society) hybrid courses and Week 16 results in two SOC 212 online courses.

Completed Full Cycle
Yes
Course Number
SOC212
Files
Attachment Size
genderissuessurveysfall-2012.docx 230.01 KB
Rating
Average: 4 (3 votes)

Comments

Peter Turner Thu, 09/06/2012 - 8:17am

I love the pre-post idea for the assessment! A few questions - what criterion will you use to judge the qualitative questions? Will you give feedback, or just keep the pre and compare to the post? If the student is already well versed in the area/topic, there will be less growth demonstrated. So is growth a factor, or just the final ratings? Just a few thoughts . . .

Erik Huntsinger Wed, 09/12/2012 - 9:34am

I agree, I love that it has both quantitative and qualitative aspects to it.  I'm looking forward to the finding, and especially what decisions you decide to make to the curriculum as a response to the findings.

Roselyn Turner Mon, 09/17/2012 - 12:21pm

I think that giving the pre- assessment will reinforce student awareness of gender issues throughout the semester, and the post-assessment will reinforce (hopefully!) their own personal growth.

Sonya Zetlan Tue, 01/08/2013 - 11:06am

What is incredible is that they not only learned something....they appeared to THINK about it!

Sonya Zetlan Tue, 01/08/2013 - 11:31am

What is incredible is that they not only learned something....they appeared to THINK about it!

Erica Wager Fri, 04/29/2016 - 3:38pm

Olga I love how you're always looking for ways to not only incorporate social justice issues but to make sure students are engaging in and LEARNING about these issues and applying them to their daily lives! This is a great way to check if students are paying attention and have thought about how these issues apply to the real world.