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 Sample size: 100 students

1. Do you feel you learn better in a lecture-based or discussion-based class?

    In general, most people answered that they learn better in discussion-based classes.  About 25% of the people answered that they learned best in a lecture-based class. 

2. Do you feel that a classroom with bright colors (such as yellow and red) would be distracting or helpful to learning? Please elaborate.

            In general, the responses were split pretty evenly between distracting and helpful.  People that found it helpful commented that bright colors can brighten their mood and liven the atmosphere of the class.  People that found it distracting commented that in general they are easily distracted and thus bright colors would hinder their ability to pay attention to the professor. 

3.  Which classes do you participate in most? Explain why.

            Many people answered smaller classes that are discussion-based, such as their esem or language classes.  People also said that they participated in classes that they are most interested in. 

4.Do you learn best in the morning or the afternoon? Do you feel that a rotating schedule (one class occurs in the morning one week and in the afternoon the next week) would be beneficial?

            Most of the people answered that they learned best in the late morning or the afternoon.  They also responded negatively to the rotating schedule because it would be too complicated and they like a set schedule.  

5.What classroom environment do you learn best in? Do you feel Bryn Mawr classrooms meet your needs? Please explain why or why not.

            Many people were pleased with Bryn Mawr’s classrooms.  They thought that the newer classrooms, such as those in Dalton, had the best learning environment.  They also liked the smaller, more intimate classrooms.  Many people believed that the classrooms in Park were too large and dull. 

            Overall, we found that most students like smaller, more intimate classrooms with more discussion-based learning.  We found it interesting that people believed that bright colors would be distracting when research has shown otherwise.  This is because bright colors unconsciously facilitate in learning, thus while they would think bright colors would be distracting, it could actually help them.  If we were to run the survey again, we would have them distinguish which class they were from because the results of the survey did not distinguish between classes. 

Sample size: 4

Questions asked:

1. Do you enjoy teaching lecture based classes or discussion based classes? Please Explain.

2. Do you feel the environment of the classroom (ie: color of the room, lighting, cleanliness) impacts your teaching ability?

3. In your experience, what do you feel is the best teaching environment (ex: optimal lighting, colors, class size etc)?

4. Do you feel that it is easy to incorporate technology into your teaching (ex: using a Smartboard or Powerpoint presentations) and manipulate the temperature in Bryn Mawr classrooms? How do you feel these factors impact your teaching?

5. Do you feel a rotating schedule (where classes would meet at two different times -- ex: at 8:00 am and at 1:00 pm -- throughout the week) would work at Bryn Mawr? Do you feel it would be beneficial to students?

In general, professors enjoyed both discussion and lecture-based classes, depending on the material they are teaching.  This resulted in teachers wanting classrooms that were flexible and easy to manipulate.  Three out of the four found that the color, cleanliness, temperature, and lighting impacts their teaching ability.  They also prefer to have a smaller class (between 8-12 students), but they recognize that oftentimes it isn’t practical to have such a small class size.  Most professors find that a rotating schedule would be too complicated and interfere with other commitments (student meetings, faculty meetings, etc).