Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!
Making Connection: Interdisciplinary Learning, Community, and Identity in 360ºs
I think because we all brought very different things and we were all grappling with the same question – and that can happen in a lot of classes – but the fact that we were approaching it from different angles and spending so much time together, […] I feel like I formed really powerful connections with [my peers] past this 360º.[…] I think it’s a really valuable learning model that I definitely miss,”
(Student Interview, February 3rd, 2015)
“Students from academic backgrounds and academic sets of confidence find an aspect of the academy that they can really unite with, that they can really take ownership of. The kind of people who maybe were a little bit estranged from some of the standard courses that Bryn Mawr offered, I think thirst for that type of class,”
(Faculty Interview, March 5th, 2015)
In Spring 2015, I conducted 9 interviews with students, 3 with faculty, and one with an administrator with the aim of understanding the impact 360ºs have on student academic identity. I also sent out a survey to the 232 360º student participants, collecting 83 responses for a 36% response rate.
The survey participants were distributed across academic fields as follows:
The demographics of total number of participants in the program are similar: 31% of students are in the Humanities, 46% in Social Sciences, 17% in STEM, and 9% identify as independent.
