Ben Auman

Learning and History Interest Survey

3/24/2016
Dr. OBrien

The following information was taken from a Freshman World History class at James Clemons in
the form of a detailed questionnaire. The class consists of 32 students from diverse
backgrounds.

When I questioned students about the ways they like to work, they equally enjoyed
working alone, with a partner, and in small groups. There were only 3 students who
said that they enjoyed full class - lecture based learning.
The students also made it clear that they work well when they are working with handson material, on the computers or devices, and in small groups. Students
overwhelmingly claim that they do not enjoy reading.
When I asked the students which environment they learn best in, the class was
divided into thirds. One third wanted silence, one wanted music in the form of their
headphones, and the other wanted to work in small groups. I have been
experimenting with the use of headphones during independent work and it is going
well. I make it very clear to the students that they may use them only when I say it is

acceptable and if I catch them doing anything besides listening to music I take the
device from them.
Things that keep the students from learning are mainly distracting noise and people
moving around them. I am currently rebuilding the classroom management of this
particular class and the amount of unwanted movement has dropped significantly, but
there is still work to be done.
I also found that when students do projects, that prefer to make a Powerpoint
presentation. However, when I asked them about what they liked least about history,
many of them said that they hate doing presentations. Students also showed interest
in making posters to hang around the school and writing reports on topics of their
choosing.
I then asked students to place a check next to the activities they enjoy most during
history class. Of the eight options I provided, the two that stood out the most are
watching historical clips and working in small groups. A few of the students included
notes like, good history clips, historical movies, and no boring shit. I will question
students on Monday about the difference between good history clips and boring
shit.
In the next section of the questionnaire, I asked them what time periods or groups of
people in history they most enjoyed learning about. I provided them with 16 different

time periods or groups of people and their top five (beginning with number one) are
Early Humans, Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, and Hinduism.

This activity provided a window into the minds of my students and has given me a
deeper understanding of their educational wants and needs. I will continue to develop
and understand of my students throughout the semester and use this questionnaire at
the beginning of each year when I am a teacher. .