Paolo Falco

Abstract

What students expect -Investigating the expectations of Global Development students at KU

Any student who enrols in a new study programme carries expectations about what s/he will be able to achieve and learn. S/he may expect to find the course challenging or relatively easy based on prior experience. Investigating students’ expectations means strengthening our understanding of what drives their satisfaction and potential disappointment. This study researches a key aspect of students’ expectations. By means of a survey, it investigates how accurate students’ beliefs are about their peers’ level of prior knowledge of quantitative and qualitative methods. This provides a concrete measure of how well the students fit within their class. Students who expect their peers to be more skilled than they actually are may find the pace of the lectures too slow. Viceversa, students who expect their peers to be less skilled than they are may find it difficult to keep up with the rest of the class. The study finds that the expectations of Global Development students at KU are accurate on average, but a significant share of them underestimates the proficiency of their future classmates in quantitative and qualitative methods at the time of accepting the offer.  The results of the analysis can help to fine-tune the course prospectus, they can assist Global Development teachers in improving the design of their individual courses, and they may inform the selection of future students.