The following is a summary of the Human Cultures General Education Survey for 2017-2018. This survey asked students for feedback and for input on how to improve Human Cultures general education courses.
- 60% of 414 respondents are classified as freshmen (27%) or sophomores (33%). 24% are classified as juniors.
- 50% of respondents stated that the Human Cultures course(s) helped them understand principles of human behavior and/or social interactions in a variety of settings “Very Well” or “Extremely Well.” An additional 30% of respondents stated that the course(s) helped them understand “Adequately Well.”
- 50% of respondents stated that the Human Cultures course(s) helped them to understand various contexts that shape thoughts and actions of people worldwide “Extremely Well” or “Very Well.” An additional 29% of respondents stated that the course(s) helped them understand “Adequately Well.”
- 79% indicated that the above-listed goals were either “Important” (54%) or “Somewhat Important” (25%).
In the survey, students were asked what helped with their learning in these courses. Here are some of their responses.
- Being motivated and having enthusiastic teachers
- Having passionate professors that love teaching the subject because it gets the students more engaged and interest in the material
- In each course, the most enlightening and useful part of the lessons was the context around behavior. Without first understanding the context, I would have struggled to grasp the behaviors being discussed.
- Just being able to talk with other student and teachers to get their opinions on things and how they do things was very helpful to me.
- Professors caring about their students enough to email them reminders on a certain day of the week, as well as making the learning environment a comfortable place to ask questions and get everyone involved.
- Professors that are willing to spend time with their students during available office hours. Also answering questions adequately in class.
- In my recent courses, it was very helpful when the professor had office hours to answer any questions or when there were group discussions about certain topics.
Students were also asked what would have improved their “learning of human behavior, social interactions, and/or contexts that shape thoughts and actions of people worldwide.” In response to this prompt, students wrote:
- Diversity is always a big part of everything. Classes seem to be more generalized to the population, but having focused studies on understanding how cultures are different and how to apply our knowledge in seeing those differences in order to better interact with different kinds of people would have helped a lot more.
- A course about inequality and culture oppression/assimilation in the US
- Having people actually from the situations and cultures we talk about come and speak.
- I think it is important to learn from people with real experience. Text books are definitely important, but they do not always allow for education of real cultures and ways of thinking
- Meeting more people who are different from me.
- More information and interaction with other classmates and the professor.
- more interaction with people
- More time with the class.
- More videos/documentaries of different cultures