This questionnaire can be used to study many aspects of the learning experience. Here are some ideas (and some limitations).

• Individual instructors can ask students to take this questionnaire, send the score to the instructor, and begin a dialogue about the learning experience.
• Individual instructors can also begin asking who really learned something‹and look at the scores of the class as a whole. It might be interesting to interview students on high and low ends. Instructors can suggest future projects for students with high scores‹as the research on insight shows that most people keep thinking about their insights.
• Administrators and Writing-Across-the-Curriculum Directors can study writing in their schools, possibly describing and manipulating variables to see what produces the optimum learning environments. These scores can be gathered and given to statistical consultants to work the appropriate statistical analyses.
• Limits: this questionnaire cannot measure the effectiveness of an entire course. It is connected to a particular writing assignment. This questionnaire should never be used to grade students on their progress in a class, no matter how much the instructor wants insight. Sometimes students who express confusion are the ones getting prepared for insight.

Please feel free to send any questions or comments to me at the address that follows:

Mary Murray

mmm11@rocketmail.com

Thanks very much for your interest in students' learning experiences. I'm sure they'll thank you too.

 

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Director: Prof. Mary Murray
m.murray@csuohio.edu