Art glass window by Marion Mahony Griffin

English Teachers Group:
GDC 10/05/01


English Teachers (Categorizer)

What information do you need this survey to provide?

1. THE TYPE OF ENGLISH PROGRAM THAT THE ENGLISH TEACHERS FEEL WOULD BE MOST EFFECTIVE

2. WHAT TYPES OF PROGRAMS ARE WE LOOKING AT?

WE ARE LOOKING AT WAC, GENERAL WRITING COURSES, WRITING WITHING THE MAJOR AND WHAT EVER HARVARD WAS {#10}

3. WHERE DO WE WANT TO GET OUT OF THIS SURVEY?

how the english teachers think english should be taught {#41}

yes, exactly, and why, and what they are trying to do, what they value: critical thinking, grammar, etc. {#50}

we should also give a section were the teachers can write us and tell us what types of programs have been working for them {#52}

hopefully we get response. {#54}

4. what the students think about english

are we really concerned with what the students think about the english program?

we are taking this from the prospective of english teachers {#14}

i THINK THAT THIS SHOULD BE MORE CONCERNED WITH THE ENGLISH TEACHERS, BUT IN THE LONG RUN WE ARE TRYING TO HELP THE STUDENTS. {#16}

so then are we going to survey the teachers or the students? {#19}

teachers {#37}

i don't think that we are suppose to ask students otherwise we will be interfearing with the students section and questioning {#43}

very true {#48}

but maybe you can "help" the english teachers, too. What might they want to do that this program doesn't allow? Are they too busy to change what they do? Do they like what they do? Would they lilke to choose their own books to use? {#53}

What questions will help you get that information?

1. HAPPIENESS WITH THEIR CURRENT ENGLISH PROGRAM

2. WILLINGNESS TO CHANGE

3. HOW EFFECTIVE THEY FEEL THE CURRENT PROGRAM IS

4. WHAT THEY FEEL WOULD MAKE FOR A BETTER LEARNING EXPERIENCE

5. CHANGES THAT THEY ARE WILLING AND CAPABLE TO MAKE

6. IF TEACHERS HAD THE OPTION WHAT TYPE OF ENGLISH PROGRAM WOULD THE PREFER TO TEACH

that could be a could idea, as long as the students know what program their getting into {#20}

i think a english teacher would teach what they were interested in rather than what the students are interested in {#21}

so would they be more intrested in major based classes or would they be more intersted in teaching the class like everyone is majoing in english {#26}

i guess we need to find that out {#36}

7. WHAT THEY THINK MAKES FOR A SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM

enviroment, class size, content, # of classes, age of student when taking classes, in major, not in major, liturature based, more problem solving, less problem solving, poetry, grammar, business writing emphasis, etc....... {#24}

these are all good question that we could expand on for the survey {#29}

Troubleshooting

1. ARE WE SENDING THE SURVEYS TO THE TEACHERS OR THE STUDENTS?

maybe we should send it to both so that we can get an all around idea on it {#31}

i agree so that we could get both perspectives on the issue {#33}

too much information couldn't be bad {#35}

but we are supposed to be writing this from the perspective of the english teacher, the student group will take care of polling the students {#47}

2. OR BOTH/

3. JUST ENGLISH TEACHERS.

4. I HOPE THAT WE DON'T RUN INTO A WALL LIKE I DID WHEN I WAS TRYING TO INTERVIEW TEACHERS HERE AT NDSU

5. AT WHAT SCHOOLS ARE WE GOING T

6. TO SEND THE SURVEYS

7. I THINK WE SHOULD SURVEY AS MANY AS WE THINK WE CAN

from just any where or any school? {#34}

i think we should limit our results to certain school otherwise we will be overwelmed with info and won't know what to do with it {#38}

very good point {#39}

we should do the school in the area and maybe a couple outside schools {#40}

start at ndsu and expand to other schools that we feel would have good input and are comparable to NDSU in size and student {#42}

i agree {#44}

maybe survey the schools we wrote about {#45}

that would work too {#46}

i think we should base our questioning in the midwest area, just because the english program works in a place harvard doesn't mean that it would work for us here {#49}

great point, we should focus on school that are demographically similar to ndsu.... agriculture, engineering, science type schools.....maybe other landgrant colleges?? {#51}

English Teachers Group (Categorizer)

English Teachers Group (Categorizer)

What features does your introducation need to have?

1. INTRO

give them a formal greeting and politely ask them to do us a service {#20}

2. DESCRIPTION

3. INVITE

4. TIME FRAME

5. CONTACT PERSON

6. HOW THE INFORMATION IS GOING TO BE USED

7. MAKE SURE THAT THEYKNOW IT IS CONFIDENTIAL

What features does your closing need to have?

1. HOW THE INFORMATION IS GOING TO BE USED

we should let them know what we are doing with the information and invite them to view our results on the internet when we are done {#17}

2. THANK YOU>

you are welcome {#18}

3. WHETHER OR NOT THEY WANT TO KNOW OR FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT.

4. WHAT HE JUST SAID

What demographic information do you want about your participants?

1. wHETHER THEY ARE TAS, LECTURERS OR PROFESSORS

2. WHETHER THEY ARE MEN OR WOMEN

3. WHEN THEY BEGAN TEACHING COMP

4. WHAT IS THEIR EDUCATION BACKGROUND

5. HOW MUCH MONEY DO THEY MAKE

6. WHERE T

7. WHETHER THEY HAVE TRAINING IN TEACHING OR NOT

Especially whether they have training in teaching writing--most have little training in teaching and only "on the job" in teaching writing. How do we ask that w/o making people defensive? {#44}

college background {#45}

8. WHERE THEIR FROM

some english teachers could be foreigners {#32}

or most of them like we have here {#33}

they still should have input {#37}

I agree we should leave them a section where they can fill in the text box with their suggestions and comments {#39}

good point {#41}

we should base our survey in the midwest area {#43}

our teachers are mainly from North Dakota {#46}

9. NAME AND ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER ,CREDITCARD # ETC....

positions they prefer and the such {#36}

10. JUST KIDDING

What styles of questions will help you gather the info you need?

1. we need to have direct questions

Yes, direct questions, but ones that get at the info we want. {#29}

such as???? {#31}

are you or are you not the black angel of death? {#38}

2. NOT LEADING ONES

None that say "what would you change" assuming there would be change, but ones that give the freedom to think about change, like what do you think are the strengths of the current course you teach? what are the weaknesses? What are the strengthes of the program you teach in? What are the weaknesses? COuld list all the same items for all the questions, because we need to figure out what they feel they have control over vs. what is forced on them. {#40}

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Elizabeth Birmingham
Assistant Professor, Department of English
320J Minard Hall
North Dakota State University
Fargo, North Dakota 58105

Office: (701) 231-6587
e-mail: Elizabeth.Birmingham@ndsu.nodak.edu

Prospective students may schedule a visit by calling: 1-800-488-NDSU.

North Dakota State University logo; reads N.D.S.U.