Developed by Salter more that 10 years ago, the Salter Environment Type Assessment is a test consisting of 100 questions, most of which are word-pair associations. The assessment, along with a personality test, determines the learning environments that work best for individual students. Salter has been surveying students about classes where they have done well and classes where they have done poorly. Women generally did not do well with the competitive, more structured lecture class style, Salter said. About 70 to 75 percent of the women surveyed, regardless of personality type, favored discussion-oriented classroom environments with more extroverted students, he said.
Overheads are the kiss of death for some students.
In the past, women were discouraged from obtaining an education. Now there are more women at universities, but that doesn't necessarily guarantee a warm environment, he said. In the future, Salter said, he will use the assessment to examine how other minorities compare.