Effects of Classroom Diversity Training on Appreciation of Similarity and Difference

Date of Graduation

Summer 2005

Degree

Master of Science in Counseling

Department

Counseling, Leadership, and Special Education

Committee Chair

Angela Anderson

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of university classroom diversity training on students’ attitudes toward appreciation of similarities and differences among people. Data was analyzed using a series of univariate repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). Does classroom diversity training have an impact on students’ appreciation of similarity and difference among people? It was hypothesized that students would exhibit significantly greater appreciation of similarities and differences among people at the end of a semester long course with intense focus on multicultural and diversity issues as compared with the beginning of the course. Participants included 124 graduate students enrolled in a multicultural counseling course at a statue university in the Midwestern United States. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, the Quick discrimination Index (QDI also known as the Social Attitude Survey or SAS), the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale-Short Form (M-GUDS-S), and the Multicultural Counseling Knowledge and Awareness Scale (MCKAS). In general, we found that scores on all factors of all three instruments were significantly higher at the posttest as compared with the pretest with the exception of one factor on the M-GUDS-S: comfort with differences.

Keywords

attitudes, counseling, difference, diversity, education, similarity

Subject Categories

Counseling

Copyright

© Sarah D. Niere

Citation-only

Dissertation/Thesis

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