Draft 1: Popping the Oxford Bubble

This topic submitted by Trent Compton, Elizabeth Hartman, Katie Knable, Emma Whitaker ( Knablekj@muohio.edu ) on 11/3/09. [Section: ]

Explorations in Inquiry---Western Program---Miami University

Popping the Oxford Bubble:
College Students and Global Understanding
Research Proposal
I. Introduction
a. Purpose/Problem
i. Question: Out of Honors Students, Athletes, International Students, and Non-Honors students, which identity at Miami University has the highest level of global understanding?
ii. In this experiment we plan to survey the various demographics of students at Miami University to evaluate their knowledge of current events and world politics.
iii. Hypothesis: International and Honors students will have the highest level of global recognition in comparison to the other groups.
b. We plan to obtain data from students that will give us insight to the level of global understanding among various college student demographics.
c. We find this research interesting because it applies directly to our everyday lives. College students have often been criticized for being out of touch with the real world and we are eager to see if this accusation has any base here at Miami University.

II. Background Information
a. Studies have shown that 85 to 90 percent of students lack knowledge of the modern world. In 1981, a national study was conducted to determine how in tuned college students were to world issues. The two-year project surveyed 3,000 randomly selected students from 185 different public universities with questions involving world religions, OPEC countries, the U.S. record of human rights, and the purpose of recent multicultural trade negotiations. The survey contained 101 questions requiring students to have knowledge of economics, politics, defense, energy, population, nutrition and health from a global perspective. Researchers concluded that any students who answered two-thirds of the questions incorrectly had inadequate understanding. With this experiment, researchers are able to recommend that Òcolleges incorporate international issues in their existing courses and put a greater emphasis on the teaching of foreign languagesÓ (The Limited). Though these issues are a bit dated and the results may have shifted over time, we are using a similar experiment to obtain statistics about global understanding today and to see how this lack of global knowledge relates to different demographics within our school.
b. ÒThink Globally, Act Locally.Ó As it happens, Òthinking globallyÓ is much more difficult than Òacting locallyÓ (Global Awareness by Robert P. Clark pg. 36). Robert P. ClarkÕs perspective can be uniquely applied to life, awareness, and student organizations at Miami University. With the majority of student organizations at Miami having local outreach programs and few having actively involved global outreach (not just raising money), Miami can be said to be a perfect example of this perspective. With 68% of the freshmen at Miami as instate students (reported by College Board, 2009), important issues are likely to be ranked with local problems having a higher priority. This assumption would obviously fail to affect international students, which has caused us to hypothesize that they will have the highest level of global understanding. However, with the Miami Plan forcing students to take up to a 202 level foreign language class and colleges as a whole expanding their middle-eastern affairs and war-related courses, universities are urging students to take a larger part in global affairs. The question therefore becomes: how have Miami students responded to this phenomenon?

III. Research Design
a. Through specific current event questions, we are studying the level of global awareness displayed by students at Miami University. We predict that international students will have a greater score on the survey because they have had the greatest exposure to at least one different culture. We also predict that honors students will outperform other students due to their higher inclination towards learning.
b. We plan to distribute surveys containing the questions regarding current events to approximately 100 people that are representative of the Miami University demographics. Below is a sample Survey:

Please check all that apply:
__ Varsity Athlete
__ International Student
__ Member of the University Honors Program
1. Which state is currently proposing to legalize marijuana?
a. South Carolina b. Florida c. California d. Texas
2. Who was recently re-elected as President of Afghanistan?
a. Abdullah Abdullah b. Hamid Karzai c. Jalal Talabani d. Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad
3. What Islands were recently hit by a catastrophic tsunami on September 29th?
a. Samoan Islands b. Philippines c. Indonesia d. Malaysia
4. What major car manufacturer filed for bankruptcy this past year?
a. Ford b. Toyota c. Lincoln d. General Motors
5. Which city was recently chosen to host the 2016 Summer Olympics?
a. Madrid b. Rio de Janeiro c. Chicago d. Tokyo

c. We will pass out surveys to diverse groups of students at several different dining halls and residence halls to ensure a representative pool of students. We will tally up all of the answers acquired and calculate the results in a proportional manner. Our calculations will take the various demographics of Miami University into account. These surveys are not the final surveys we plan to use because we want our questions to be as recent as possible. If we discover important current events happening within the next few weeks, we plan to incorporate them into our survey.

IV. Materials and Methods
a. The only necessary material we will need is paper to produce and distribute the surveys to our sample of 100 students.
b. While some students may indeed fall into our random survey pool, we intend to execute this project with as little bias as possible. Therefore, we plan to only present our project to the class after it has been carried out and analyzed.
c. Our completed data sheet will showcase our conclusions through graphs and detailed analyses.
d. Research Time Line
i. November 3: Proposal Due
ii. November 7-8: Hand out surveys
iii. November 14: Calculate and analyze acquired data
iv. November 19: Write up conclusions and make graphs to show our answers.
v. December 3: Write up final report and revise as needed.
Works Cited
American Council on Education. College Students Today: A National Portrait. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 2005.

- This short book could be very applicable to our project because it has a great amount of data relating to the demographics and personal habits of college students around the world. We will be able to compare the general college statistics to the results obtained from our survey applying to Miami University students in particular.

Brandon, David P. Demographic Factors in American Education. ERS report. Arlington, Va:
Educational Research Service, 1995.
- This source is helpful because it discusses the demographics of high school students. Although we are surveying college students, it may be interesting to compare and contrast our findings with those of this study.

Clark, Robert P. Global Awareness: Thinking Systematically About the World. Lanham, Md:
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002.
- This text is important to our research because it explains how globalization has affected the spread of news. It explains the impact of the internet and other mass media. Globalization has made global awareness a lot easier.

Currie, Jan, and Janice Angela Newson. Universities and Globalization: Critical Perspectives.
Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications, 1998.
- This text is useful because it explains how Universities are changing as globalization continues to occur. It explores the differences in today's university compared to yesterdays and takes a look into the future.

Diddi, Arvind, and Robert LaRose "Getting Hooked on News: Uses and Gratifications and the Formation of News Habits Among College Students in an Internet Environment." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 50.2 (2006): 193-210. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 20 Oct. 2009.
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=6&hid=11&sid=5ef86ab0-49ab-4f14-91fe-b8f87cee4f17%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=22999004

- We can use this source to help us understand how college students are getting their news. Which ways are the most convenient, which ways do they use the most, which ways are the most accurate (are college studentÕs sources reliable?) This can help us in the formation of our survey which we will distribute to various students.

Grigsby, Mary. College Life Through the Eyes of Students. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2009.

- This book will be very helpful in our study because it is very recent and it discusses the average everyday life of college students. It elaborates on the values and important things in their lives while they are at school.

"The limited world of college students." Science News 119.17 (1981): 262. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 20 Oct. 2009.
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=8&hid=11&sid=5ef86ab0-49ab-4f14-91fe-
b8f87cee4f17%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h
&AN=7079624

-Though this article is ANCIENT (1981) we can still use this as a guide to how we should run our research. It mimics what weÕre trying to do. It backs up our questions but we can still relate it to current time at Miami University.

Lipka, Sara "Poor Participation in Politics." Chronicle of Higher Education 54.13 (2007): A23. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 20 Oct. 2009.
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=10&hid=11&sid=5ef86ab0-49ab-4f14-91fe-
b8f87cee4f17%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=27767511

- This article could be very beneficial to our research because it discusses research done on undergraduate students and their involvement in politics. A survey conducted through this project discovered that only one third of students found it vital to be educated on current events and social issues. The work done on this study could contribute greatly to our similar inquiry project.

Lord, Mary, and Ben Wildavsky "Real World 101." U.S. News & World Report 131.19 (2001): 56. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 20 Oct. 2009.
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=12&hid=11&sid=5ef86ab0-49ab-4f14-91fe-
b8f87cee4f17%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=5415311

- This article would be of interest to our study because it elaborates in the expanding Muslim and Arab studies field and how it relates to colleges and potential employment. More and more schools are putting an emphasis on geography, Muslim studies, and many war-related topics. This is mostly because getting degrees in those areas will bring government employers calling, but also because 9/11 has upped levels of civilian awareness in Middle Eastern affairs.
Sawyer, Richard. Using Demographic Information in Predicting College Freshmen Grades. ACTresearch report, no. 85-87. Iowa City, Iowa: American College Testing Program, Research Division, 1985.
- Although this source is rather out of date, it discusses so many of the diverse demographics of college students. The book goes on to apply the data to make predictions concerning grades. Although we are surveying levels of global awareness, this bookÕs findings can be compared to ours.

Vincent, Richard C., and Michael D. Basil "College students' news gratifications, media use, and current events knowledge." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 41.3 (1997): 380. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 20 Oct. 2009.
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=14&hid=11&sid=5ef86ab0-49ab-4f14-91fe-
b8f87cee4f17%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h
&AN=168074

- This article is relevant to our research project because it provides an experiment much like the one we will be conducting. With this article we may be able to gather ideas to help us put together a hypothesis and develop an effective experiment. Their hypothesis compares to our preliminary hypothesis in that they also predicted that the use of media news would depend on not only the age of the student, but also on the demographic differences within the school. After our project is finalized, we can compare our findings to those of this article.

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