A preliminary assessment of the value of prerequisites in a horticulture curriculum

Final grades and student GPAs in 4 horticulture courses at Montana State University were examined for the previous 3 or 6 years. Each course had 2 prerequisites. Of the 391 student records examined, 308 showed all prerequisites had been met prior to enrollment. In 3 out of the 4 courses mean grades...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NACTA journal 1998-12, Vol.42 (4), p.34-38
Main Authors: Golembiewski, R. (Montana State University, Bozeman, MT.), Gough, R.E, Bates, R.M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
CLASS PERFORMANCE
COLLEGE CURRICULUM
COLLEGE GRADES
College students
Colleges
Community colleges
Course catalogs
Curricula
ELEVE
ENSEIGNEMENT SUPERIEUR
ENSENANZA SUPERIOR
ESTUDIANTES
Grade point average
HIGHER EDUCATION
HORTICULTURA
HORTICULTURE
MONTANA
Plants
POINT AVERAGE
Required courses
STUDENTS
Universities
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Summary:Final grades and student GPAs in 4 horticulture courses at Montana State University were examined for the previous 3 or 6 years. Each course had 2 prerequisites. Of the 391 student records examined, 308 showed all prerequisites had been met prior to enrollment. In 3 out of the 4 courses mean grades for students that had met all prerequisites were not significantly different from those of students that hadn't (P = 0.05). Those that had all prerequisites received significantly higher grades in 1 course. In half the courses the trend was for higher GPAs among students that had met prerequisites. These also tended to have higher grades, regardless of whether they had met all prerequisites. In the other classes, students having significantly higher GPAs also had higher grades and were more apt to have taken all prerequisites. The preliminary results suggest that completion of prerequisites is not a reliable indicator of class performance and that GPAs provided a more effective method of determining a student's potential to complete a course successfully.
ISSN:0149-4910