What characteristics predict student-faculty interaction and important relationships with effective educational practice

Abstract

Student-faculty interaction is significantly beneficial to college students' engagement and success. Past studies of student-faculty interaction (SFI) have focused on the relationship between student characteristics and SFI or between faculty members' qualities, skills, or approaches and SFI. This study uses a large-scale multi-institution data set to take a closer examination of the relationships between faculty characteristics, course characteristics, institutional characteristics, faculty course goals, and faculty values for campus support with SFI. Results suggest that several faculty, course, and institution characteristics predict increased SFI. Additionally, results also indicate that faculty who do more to structure their courses for student growth and development and more strongly value a supportive campus environment for students interact with students more frequently.