Student–Faculty Interaction in Research Universiti

Authors: Young K Kim Linda J Sax

Publish Date: 2009/02/25

Volume: 50, Issue: 5, Pages: 437-459

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Abstract

This study examined whether the effects of student–faculty interaction on a range of student outcomes—ie college GPA degree aspiration integration critical thinking and communication cultural appreciation and social awareness and satisfaction with college experience—vary by student gender race social class and firstgeneration status The study utilized data on 58281 students who participated in the 2006 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey UCUES The findings reveal differences in the frequency of student–faculty interaction across student gender race social class and firstgeneration status and differences in the effects of student–faculty interaction ie conditional effects that depended on each of these factors except firstgeneration status The findings provide implications for educational practice on how to maximize the educational efficacy of student–faculty interaction by minimizing the gender race social class and firstgeneration differences associated with itInteracting with faculty—whether in the classroom the laboratory office hours or other venue—is one of the key college experiences associated with student development Positive and close interactions between undergraduates and their professors precipitate students’ favorable educational experiences as well as their greater academic and personal development Lau 2003 Pascarella and Terenzini 2005 Two higher education studies Pascarella 1980 and Pascarella and Terenzini 2005 provide a comprehensive and critical literature review on student–faculty interaction and its relationship with college outcomes Pascarella 1980 summarizes a number of studies conducted prior to 1980 on the effects of informal outofclass student–faculty interaction on various college student outcomes that are grouped into five categories career plans and educational aspirations satisfaction with college intellectual and personal development academic achievement and college persistence Based on his intensive analysis of the literature Pascarella suggests that statistically significant positive associations exist between student contact with faculty and these five categories He maintains that these associations are valid even after controlling for a broad range of student input characteristics and in a few studies other college experiences In How College Affects Students Pascarella and Terenzini 2005 reinforce Pascarella’s early findings by including formal inclass student–faculty interaction as well as the informal outofclass interaction and by adding a number of studies from the 1980s through 2000s In line with Pascarella 1980 they demonstrate that the amount and quality of student–faculty interaction positively affect various student outcomes including subject matter competence cognitive skills and intellectual growth attitudes and values educational attainment and career choice and developmentAs findings from the two literature reviews suggest college impact research has continually demonstrated a favorable relationship between student–faculty interaction and a broad range of student educational outcomes eg Astin 1977 1993 Cabrera et al 2001 Campbell and Campbell 1997 Endo and Harpel 1982 Ishiyama 2002 Kuh 1995 Kuh and Hu 2001 Lamport 1993 Pascarella 1980 1985 Pascarella and Terenzini 1976 Strauss and Terenzini 2007 Terenzini et al 1999 Thompson 2001 Volkwein et al 1986 In general the research reveals that more contact between students and faculty both inside and outside the classroom enhances college students’ development and learning outcomesWhereas the majority of research until the 1990s documented the “general” positive effect of faculty contact on educational outcomes utilizing aggregate student samples ie not disaggregated by race gender or other factors a number of recent studies highlight that the effect of student–faculty interaction may be “conditional” Specifically contrary to a “general” college effect a “conditional” effect assumes that the same intervention or experience might not have the same impact for all kinds of students Pascarella 2006 Some studies demonstrate that the impact of student–faculty interaction may differ by student gender Colbeck et al 2001 Kezar and Moriarty 2000 Sax et al 2005 and others reveal differences by race Cole 2004 Kim 2006 Lundberg and Schreiner 2004 With respect to gender Sax et al 2005 found that compared to female students male students experienced greater gains in political engagement social activism and liberalism resulting from their interactions with faculty By contrast the positive effects of student–faculty interaction on the students’ sense of physical emotional and academic wellbeing were more evident among females In regards to conditional effects by race Kim 2006 shows that student–faculty interaction has a significantly positive effect on White students’ educational aspiration but not on African Americans Asian Americans and Latinos Kim also found that student–faculty interaction has no significant effect on racial tolerance for African American and Latino students as opposed to a significantly positive effect for White and Asian American studentsThese results suggest that the estimation of general effects using combined student samples cannot fully explain the relationship between student–faculty interaction and student educational outcomes Furthermore the existence of gender or racebased conditional effects in student–faculty interaction raises the question about other conditional effects in the college experience Indeed Pascarella 2006 argues that broadening our notion of diversity regarding the college student populations beyond racial diversity eg diversity of social class value or religious views may improve college impact researchAnother factor which may influence the role played by student–faculty interaction is the type of college attended by students Undergraduates in small liberal arts colleges benefit from more frequent interactions with faculty—both in and out of class—while those attending large research universities may have more difficulty gaining access to faculty Boyer Commission 1998 Kuh and Hu 2001 Kuh and Vesper 1997 Students at large research universities encounter at least two potential challenges to faculty access first is the large student–faculty ratio which inherently limits opportunity for direct interaction with faculty and second is an emphasis on research which can focus faculty attention on graduate students at the expense of undergraduates Astin and Chang 1995 However an emphasis on research need not come at the expense of undergraduates as it provides a potentially powerful opportunity for undergraduate learning and engagementThe current study improves our knowledge base of the conditional effects of student–faculty interaction by examining different patterns of student–faculty interaction for various types of student subgroups within a large research university system Specifically it seeks to answer the questions 1 How does the frequency of student–faculty interaction vary by student gender race social class and firstgeneration status1 2 How does student satisfaction with faculty contact vary by student gender race social class and firstgeneration status 3 How does the relationship between student–faculty interaction and student educational outcomes vary by these student characteristicsThe present study used data from the 2006 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey UCUES which is a longitudinal survey of UC undergraduate students administered by the UC Berkeley Office of Student Research and managed by the University of California Office of the President Included in this study are items from the UCUES Core and the Academic Engagement Module The Core Items target all UC undergraduates and gather information on student background characteristics academic and personal development academic engagement satisfaction and evaluation of the major The Academic Engagement Module targets a randomly selected 20 of the students and collects data on students’ college experiences and their perceptions of the university

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