IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v11y2021i4p21582440211050399.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Experiences With General Education: How Sense of Community Shapes Students’ Perceptions

Author

Listed:
  • Michael R. Cope
  • Kayci M. Muirbrook
  • Jorden E. Jackson
  • Paige N. Park
  • Carol Ward
  • Curtis Child
  • Jonathan A. Jarvis

Abstract

General education (GE) classes are designed to reflect the mission and goals of the university and to help students become more well-rounded, career-ready, and civically-minded post-graduation. Students’ perceptions of these courses have a significant influence on their capacity to succeed, and ultimately to get the most out of their college experience. Using results from an email questionnaire sent to students at a private university in the western United States, we analyze the relationships between perceptions of the GE experience, sense of community, and academic year, and we find that sense of community is positively associated with perceptions of GEs. These results also show freshmen having a higher sense of community than juniors or seniors, and that scholastic class in school is negatively associated with satisfaction with GEs. Furthermore, we find that seniors generally have a lower perception of the importance of GEs in their lives when compared to freshmen.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael R. Cope & Kayci M. Muirbrook & Jorden E. Jackson & Paige N. Park & Carol Ward & Curtis Child & Jonathan A. Jarvis, 2021. "Experiences With General Education: How Sense of Community Shapes Students’ Perceptions," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(4), pages 21582440211, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:11:y:2021:i:4:p:21582440211050399
    DOI: 10.1177/21582440211050399
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440211050399
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/21582440211050399?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elvira Cicognani & Claudia Pirini & Corey Keyes & Mohsen Joshanloo & Reza Rostami & Masoud Nosratabadi, 2008. "Social Participation, Sense of Community and Social Well Being: A Study on American, Italian and Iranian University Students," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 89(1), pages 97-112, October.
    2. Cosimo Talò & Terri Mannarini & Alessia Rochira, 2014. "Sense of Community and Community Participation: A Meta-Analytic Review," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(1), pages 1-28, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abdel-Salam G. Abdel-Salam & Radwa Ismail & Mohamed Rhouma & Amal Elatawneh & Khalifa Al Hazaa & Michael H. Romanowski, 2023. "Using Grades in Core Curriculum Chain Courses as Predictors of Academic Performance in Subsequent Courses: A Study at Qatar University," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marie-Claude Richard & Émélie Lavoie & Brendon Watters, 2023. "Validation of the French-Language Version of the Sense of Community Index-2," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(2), pages 21582440231, June.
    2. Gabriele Prati & Elvira Cicognani & Cinzia Albanesi, 2018. "The Impact of Sense of Community in the School, Social Skills, and Exposure to Aggression and Victimization on Students’ Well-Being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 637-651, November.
    3. Gabriele Prati & Cinzia Albanesi & Luca Pietrantoni, 2016. "The Reciprocal Relationship between Sense of Community and Social Well-Being: A Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 1321-1332, July.
    4. Elham Hesari & Seyedeh Masoumeh Moosavy & Amirreza Rohani & Sepideh Besharati Kivi & Mitra Ghafourian & Bahram Saleh Sedgh Pour, 2020. "Investigation the Relationship Between Place Attachment and Community Participation in Residential Areas: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(3), pages 921-941, October.
    5. Cosimo Talò, 2024. "Modelling and Measuring Local Community Engagement (LCE)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 173(2), pages 475-498, June.
    6. Vanesa Salado & Concepción Moreno-Maldonado & Carmen Moreno & Francisco Rivera, 2022. "The Influence of Developmental Contexts in Adolescent’s Expected Sociopolitical Participation through the Sense of Unity: An Analysis of the Mediation Model Invariance through Sex, Age, and Socioecono," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(1), pages 107-136, February.
    7. Paul Alhassan Issahaku & Anda Adam, 2022. "Young People in Newfoundland and Labrador: Community Connectedness and Opportunities for Social Inclusion," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, July.
    8. Runyuan Jia & Juan Antonio Sánchez-Sáez & Francisco Segado Segado, 2023. "The Impact of the China Open 500 Event on Sense of Community: Comparisons of Volunteers’ Pre- and Post-Event Perceptions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-21, April.
    9. Darío Díaz & Amalio Blanco & Miriam Bajo & Maria Stavraki, 2015. "Fatalism and Well-Being Across Hispanic Cultures: The Social Fatalism Scales (SFS)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(3), pages 929-945, December.
    10. Wenkun Zhang & Yanan Wang & Tao Zhang & Jinhua Chu, 2022. "Live-streaming community interaction effects on travel intention: the mediation role of sense of community and swift-guanxi," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 485-509, December.
    11. Matthias Lühr & Maria K. Pavlova & Maike Luhmann, 2022. "Nonpolitical Versus Political Participation: Longitudinal Associations with Mental Health and Social Well-Being in Different Age Groups," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 865-884, February.
    12. Maria Giuseppina Bartolo & Rocco Servidio & Anna Lisa Palermiti & Maria Rosaria Nappa & Angela Costabile, 2023. "Pro-Environmental Behaviors and Well-Being in Adolescence: The Mediating Role of Place Attachment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(10), pages 1-12, May.
    13. Ana Fernandes & Teresa Proença & Marisa R. Ferreira & Arminda Paço, 2021. "Does youth civic engagement enhance social and academic performance?," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 18(2), pages 273-293, June.
    14. Manuela Zambianchi & Pio Ricci Bitti, 2014. "The Role of Proactive Coping Strategies, Time Perspective, Perceived Efficacy on Affect Regulation, Divergent Thinking and Family Communication in Promoting Social Well-Being in Emerging Adulthood," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(2), pages 493-507, April.
    15. Habib, Muhammad Danish & Kaur, Puneet & Sharma, Veenu & Talwar, Shalini, 2023. "Analyzing the food waste reduction intentions of UK households. A Value-Attitude-Behavior (VAB) theory perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    16. Terri Mannarini & Cosimo Talò & Evangelia Ntzani & Maria Kritikou & Lluis Serra Majem & Sergio Salvatore & Lisa Marie Warner & Maria Luisa Brandi, 2018. "Sense of Community and the Perception of the Socio-Physical Environment: A Comparison Between Urban Centers of Different Sizes Across Europe," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(3), pages 965-977, June.
    17. Cosimo Talò & Terri Mannarini, 2015. "Measuring Participation: Development and Validation the Participatory Behaviors Scale," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 799-816, September.
    18. Matthias Buchecker & Jacqueline Frick, 2020. "The Implications of Urbanization for Inhabitants’ Relationship to Their Residential Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-23, February.
    19. Desirée Campagna & Giulio Caperna & Valentina Montalto, 2020. "Does Culture Make a Better Citizen? Exploring the Relationship Between Cultural and Civic Participation in Italy," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(2), pages 657-686, June.
    20. Cosimo Talò, 2018. "Community-Based Determinants of Community Engagement: A Meta-Analysis Research," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 571-596, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:11:y:2021:i:4:p:21582440211050399. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.