Date of Award
1992
Document Type
Dissertation - NSU Access Only
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Abraham S. Fischler College of Education
Advisor
Barton R. Herrscher
Keywords
women
Abstract
Administrators at Missouri Southern State College (MSSC) recently identified increasing student retention as a major goal. Consistent with postsecondary institutions across the country, women students at MSSC are the "new majority" of undergraduates. An effective retention effort would require identification of women's unique learning needs and the implications for teaching and learning.
Since the majority of MSSC students are commuters, the classroom represents their major learning environment. Few faculty members were aware of gender influences in the classroom and their effect on women's learning. The purpose of the project was to identify women's unique learning needs and recommend teaching practices to optimize their learning environment.
Research questions were addressed by establishing the historical context of women in higher education; identifying women's unique learning needs; and identifying instructional methods compatible with women's learning and instructor.
behaviors which create barriers to women's learning. The research problem-solving methodology, using a case study of women students, was utilized. Women's learning needs were derived from research on psychological development and ways of knowing. Appropriate instructional methods were identified by applying this research to instructional methods. Instructional methods were then compared to those advocated in the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.
Instructor behaviors which create barriers to women's learning were identified from the Project on the Status and Education of Women. Focus groups composed of MSSC women students were conducted to obtain their perspectives on optimizing learning environments.
Results established that higher education institutions in the United States were developed for and by men. Institutions today remain fundamentally unchanged; men's learning needs are better served than women's. For classrooms to be supportive, women students need instructors who provide them the opportunity for dialogue and help in building peer relationships. Women were found to have minimal needs for adversarial debate, competition, confrontation, and hierarchy and strong needs for instructors to relate course content to women's personal and soc-al contexts, to take their life experiences seriously, to foster and convey confidence, and to validate students' perceptions.
Supportive instructional methods were characterized as collaborative, interactive, and integrative of theory, experience, and application. These characteristics were closely related to four of the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education: respecting diverse ways of learning, cooperation among students, active learning, and student-faculty contact. Interactive pedagogy clearly emerged as the preferred learning methodology.
Students in the focus groups unanimously preferred an affective orientation to the classroom. The instructor's relationship to the students and the students' interrelationships were the most important characteristics identified as supporting their best learning. They preferred the instructor to be informal, to take a personal interest in students' learning, to call students by name, and to involve them in discussions. It was very important for students to know the names of the others in the class. Group participants also described uncomfortable classroom experiences in which they perceived overt and covert discriminatory behaviors.
A major recommendation is to relate gender research to improving student retention. Recommendations are provided for developing increased faculty and stude.it awareness of gender issues, for providing faculty training and for integrating teaching practices that optimize women's learning.