January and March Student Surveys
Over the course of my student-teaching in three ninth grade World History classrooms at Bookman High School, I distributed two surveys regarding students’ interests in learning about various aspects of world history. Students took the first interest survey in January after completing a fifty-point quiz on the Byzantine Empire, and they took the second interest survey in March after completing a fifty-point quiz on the Middle Ages. The surveys share one identical question, but differ in other respects. Read the January student interest survey below:
The first two questions on this survey relate to students’ preferences for social studies class structure and social studies assessments. Though unrelated to my inquiry question, I was simply curious as to the structures students enjoyed and determined helped them learn best. I was also curious about how students felt towards my classroom mentor’s multiple-choice tests. The third question on this survey is identical to the first question on the student interest survey I distributed in March. The question relates to the aspects of a civilization or society students find most interesting. The final question asks students to name a song that gets them “out of bed in the morning.” This question, while silly, helped me get to know my students better and sparked an ongoing conversation about musical tastes that lasted throughout the duration of my student-teaching.
Read the March student interest survey below:
Read the March student interest survey below:
The first question on this survey is identical to the third question on the student interest survey I distributed in January. I was keen to find out how students’ interests in learning about various aspects of a civilization or society had changed after our Major World Religions and Middle Ages units. The second and third questions on this survey relate to students’ level of interest about African history and any questions they have on the subject. With the Africa unit just a week away, I wanted to I wanted to learn more about students’ interests in this underappreciated area so I could plan an engaging unit. To review the results of the second question on the March student survey, please visit the “Interest Survey” tab on the “Modern Africa” page.
January and March results of the shared survey question about students’ interests in learning about various aspects of a civilization or society are presented in the pie charts below:
January and March results of the shared survey question about students’ interests in learning about various aspects of a civilization or society are presented in the pie charts below:
To analyze these results, I weighted students’ first choice (a rank of 1) as three points, their second choice (a rank of 2) as two points, and their third choice (a rank of 3) as one point. This gave each student a total of six points to award across three areas of interest. I chose to calculate results in this manor in order to distinguish strong from passing interest. The drawback of this method is that it compels students to rank their interests when they may harbor equal levels of interest across all three areas, thereby exaggerating some interests while downplaying others.
In comparing the two charts, the most dramatic shift was students’ increase in interest in religion and culture from January (19%) to March (29%). This can reasonably be attributed to our lengthy Major World Religions unit that took place in the interim. Engagement was high throughout this unit, and the final two weeks of the unit revolved around modern world religious conflicts, which suited many of my students’ interests in current events. However, interest in religion and culture was still high in both surveys, indicating that in the future religion and culture will be advantageous alternative historical narratives to explore in the social studies classroom. Another stark shift was in students’ increase in interest in childhood and education from January (13%) to March (20%). The reason for this change is difficult to determine because lessons explicitly focusing on childhood and education occurred both before and after these surveys were taken, not in the interim. Although, the final project of the Major World Religions unit gave students the option to choose to write a letter or journal entry from the perspective of a child or teenager experiencing one of the modern world religious conflicts we studied. Students enjoyed identifying with a fictional character of their own creation, and learning history in this way. Curiously, students’ interest in gender decreased from January (19%) to March (14%). Students were very engaged in the chivalry lesson of the Middle Ages unit, and at the time of the second survey many had just recently chosen to answer a short-answer question about chivalry and feminism. Students may have thought we had exhausted the issue, or they may have felt discouraged by the difficulty of that final short answer question. On the whole, by the March survey, students tended to express greater interest in alternative historical narratives (religion/culture, childhood/education, gender, and family life), accounting for 75% of the distribution points, than in more traditional narratives of governing systems, economy, and social structure. Moreover, students’ interest in these alternative historical narratives increased as we discussed them more frequently in class. Such a pattern shows that students are more organically inclined towards these alterative narratives, and once engaged, their interest in them piques.
In comparing the two charts, the most dramatic shift was students’ increase in interest in religion and culture from January (19%) to March (29%). This can reasonably be attributed to our lengthy Major World Religions unit that took place in the interim. Engagement was high throughout this unit, and the final two weeks of the unit revolved around modern world religious conflicts, which suited many of my students’ interests in current events. However, interest in religion and culture was still high in both surveys, indicating that in the future religion and culture will be advantageous alternative historical narratives to explore in the social studies classroom. Another stark shift was in students’ increase in interest in childhood and education from January (13%) to March (20%). The reason for this change is difficult to determine because lessons explicitly focusing on childhood and education occurred both before and after these surveys were taken, not in the interim. Although, the final project of the Major World Religions unit gave students the option to choose to write a letter or journal entry from the perspective of a child or teenager experiencing one of the modern world religious conflicts we studied. Students enjoyed identifying with a fictional character of their own creation, and learning history in this way. Curiously, students’ interest in gender decreased from January (19%) to March (14%). Students were very engaged in the chivalry lesson of the Middle Ages unit, and at the time of the second survey many had just recently chosen to answer a short-answer question about chivalry and feminism. Students may have thought we had exhausted the issue, or they may have felt discouraged by the difficulty of that final short answer question. On the whole, by the March survey, students tended to express greater interest in alternative historical narratives (religion/culture, childhood/education, gender, and family life), accounting for 75% of the distribution points, than in more traditional narratives of governing systems, economy, and social structure. Moreover, students’ interest in these alternative historical narratives increased as we discussed them more frequently in class. Such a pattern shows that students are more organically inclined towards these alterative narratives, and once engaged, their interest in them piques.