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Themes
The following themes came up by students during their collective interview.
Theme 1: Distribution requirements
Overall the view of the respondents on the distribution requirements appeared to be rather positive. They unanimously agreed that distribution requirements were necessary. Answering the question as to why they supported it, Shania said, “if you only took classes in your major you’d be really close minded”. Additionally, they presented us with examples of how broad a person’s education becomes through these diverse distribution requirements. Winnie remarked how fun it was to watch one of her friends who is a history major, education minor “get excited about how an electron moves”. Liliana, a biology major said “I didn’t know anything about econ. before, and now I took it and I’m really interested in econ”. In the context of making decisions about ones’ career and specific field of study during the time as an undergraduate student, these distribution requirements clearly play an important role. For some, the classes in diverse disciplines serve to enhance the liberal arts curriculum while for others the introductory level classes such as bio 150, reinforce their commitment to the discipline as in the case of Liliana who continued to take the 200 level biology class and is thoroughly enjoying herself. Janet, who was initially a pre-med student, has been studying biology since high school, she switched over to economics as she claimed that she found it to be more intellectually challenging. It is clear that exposure to a wide variety of disciplines makes a person question who they really are and what they want to do, thereby helping them make decisions concerning their lives as academics. Kiki also came into college as a very keen biology student but, upon completion of Bio 150 decided that architecture was what she would pursue. Distribution requirements are valuable because they make the students think in different ways and force people to take classes outside of their majors. This enables students to explore areas they would never have otherwise taken. First year seminars were talked about as a good way to do distribution requirements, as opposed to people just taking the science course with the easiest reputation.
Speaking of the issue of ‘weeding out’ in the context of introductory classes, Dianne lamented that it “was kind of disheartening because when I’m in it and I know I have to take it for a requirement I know they’re making it hard just cause they know not everyone’s going to be a bio major.”
Bio 150, which currently most often has students taking it for a requirement, might elicit more interest from students if it had a more narrow and detailed focus on particular biological topics (rather than a shallow sweep); smaller classes would also be desirable and enable more participation; all of these factors were thought to contribute to the success and interest level of the students there to fulfill a requirement. One student even expressed hope that it might lead to a student in minoring in biology rather than leaving the class frustrated and without an appreciation for the subject.
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