Abstract
Like most liberal arts colleges in the country, that at Middle Tennessee State University has experienced a substantial drop in enrollment over the past six years. Declining enrollments, a state mandate to improve retention and persistence, and a national climate that undervalues the liberal arts have created a need to ensure that students recognize the importance and value of their liberal arts experiences. Using a pre-test/post-test survey, we seek to determine student habit and perception changes concerning liberal arts that result from participation in Reacting to the Past (RTTP) experiences. Since RTTP is a cost-effective high-impact practice, it is a viable tool to engage students, allowing them to see firsthand why liberal arts are important for their educational experience.
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- 1.
We would like to acknowledge Benjamin Simpkins, former Director of Data Management and Institutional Research at Middle Tennessee State University, who aided in survey design, administration, and data entry and compiled student data for our study. See also: http://tennesseepromise.gov/
- 2.
Note that this number, which is based on course enrollments at the beginning of the relevant semesters, includes some students who have taken multiple courses with Reacting to the Past experiences as well as some students who may have withdrawn early in the semester.
- 3.
Predictive courses are those in which a student’s performance is a strong determinant of whether or not he or she will persist to graduation in a particular major. History general education courses are predictive across majors in part, we suspect, because of the emphasis on effective (written) communication and critical thinking skills necessary for success in college.
- 4.
- 5.
For the definition and characteristics of high-impact practices, see Kuh and Schneider 2008.
- 6.
Note that freshman seminars are considered to be HIPs whether or not they include RTTP. Thus, analyzing RTTP within other contexts is something that is necessary to understand the impact of this pedagogy itself.
- 7.
- 8.
24% of students in an RTTP course who completed the pre-test and the post-test knew the course contained an RTTP game, so some self-selection into RTTP classes is likely to have occurred. Because there may be differences between those students who participated in RTTP previously and first-time participants, we examined the responses for students in RTTP classes for the first time and found that they report a substantially larger decline in discomfort with public speaking on the post-test (−7.9%) and are less likely to report never asking questions in class than the other groups (−3.2%).
- 9.
Specifically, Communication, English, Foreign Languages, History, Fine & Performing Arts, Philosophy, Political Science, & Sociology.
- 10.
Note, however, Olwell and Stevens in their cautions against having a single solution for retention issues (2015, pp. 570–571).
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McCormack, D., Petersen, K.K. (2018). Impact and Perception: Reacting to the Past at Middle Tennessee State University. In: Watson, C., Hagood, T. (eds) Playing to Learn with Reacting to the Past. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61747-3_2
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