College Student Perceptions and Ideals of Teaching: An Exploratory Pilot Study
Student perceptions and ideals of teaching influence the quality of classroom interaction, student attendance, student learning, and perhaps even career choice. However, students are not singularly impacted by their perceptions and ideals; their preferences also affect faculty and adjunct performance reviews, tenure and promotion, departmental and program retention rates, and university recruitment. The researchers developed an instrument to examine the association between student perceptions and ideals of teaching. Factor, correlation, and demographic data analyses were preformed. Results indicate several strong correlations in the population under study. Suggestions to assist faculty/staff with aligning student perceptions and ideals are presented. Key words: student perceptions, student ideals, higher education Introduction Student perceptions and ideals of teaching influence the quality of classroom interaction, student attendance, student learning, and perhaps even career choice. However, students are not singularly impacted by their perceptions and ideals; their preferences also affect faculty and adjunct performance reviews, tenure and promotion, departmental and program retention rates, and university recruitment. Problems can arise when incongruence exists between student and faculty perceptions and/or ideals of teaching. For example, a department may feel they are benefiting students by using cutting-edge online teaching technologies only to have students feel unsatisfied by the reduction in classroom interaction. Conversely, some students prefer online courses and are disillusioned with the teaching capabilities of faculty who do not provide this type of instruction. Divergent views on quality education have existed since the inception of the academy. Yet with students given more choices than ever before in the number of colleges and universities willing to meet their higher education needs, student satisfaction has become increasingly important to the survival of the academic institution. The goal of the current investigation is to determine college student perceptions and ideals of teaching. The researchers developed a questionnaire to ascertain how students perceive the instruction they currently receive, their ideals of teaching, and the relationship between these variables. Literature The literature pertaining to effective college-level instruction is bountiful, yet often conflictual in findings of the classroom traits, characteristics, and qualities students deem as necessary for an 'ideal' education. Disagreement exists between the relevance and importance of personal characteristics versus competence of the educator. Several studies have found positive personality traits possessed by the educator, such as being empathic, encouraging dialogue outside of class, respecting student opinions, and being genuinely concerned about student well-being are all qualities students rely on to comprise an ideal educator (Sprinkle, 2008; Helterbran, 2008; Alweshahi, Harley, & Cook, 2007; Arnon & Reichel, 2007; Epting, Zinn, Buskist, & Buskist, 2007; Mclean, 2001; Das & El-Sabban, 1996). However, other studies cite educator competence or subject mastery as necessary for educational effectiveness through the lens of student raters (Arnon & Reichel, 2007; Roberts, 1981). In addition, factors such as gender, age, grade point average, degree of student integration, and even classroom physical environment have also been shown to influence determinations of the 'ideal' educator as well as color students' perceptions (Reichel & Arnon, 2009; Strage, 2008; Veltri, Banning, & Davies, 2006; Till, 2005; Mannan, 2001; Basow, 2000; Freeman, 1994; Amin, 1994). The direction of these influences is open to debate. Some studies indicate college students prefer male and younger instructors to female and older educators, (Arbuckle & Williams, 2003; Kaschak, 1978), while other studies have found a faculty/student gender and age interaction mediates this outcome (Sprinkle, 2008; Basow, 2000). …