This study assesses the effect of informal faculty-student interaction in small groups on college students. The central hypothesis states that behavioral development of college students is enhanced by informal contact with faculty beyond normal associations during regular classroom periods. The sample consisted of 60 volunteer men and women undergraduate students enrolled in the College of Engineering at Michigan State University. Ten groups of students were randomly formed from the volunteers. Six of these were experimental groups which met with a volunteer faculty member assigned to meet with them. Three similar groups served as control groups and met without a professor. Student participation behavior was pre-tested and post-tested by the Omnibus Personality Inventory and behavior differences between experimental and control subjects were assessed at the end of the experimental treatment. The results of this study corroborate the findings of prior research that faculty members do not significantly influence student behavior development. One important exception, however, was that contact with a professor under these experimental conditions may have produced in students a greater concern for others and a greater tendency toward personal trusting relationships. Implications of these findings for higher education are suggested. (RSM)
Authors
- Authorizing Institution
- California State Polytechnic Coll., San Luis Obispo.
- Peer Reviewed
- F
- Published in
- United States of America
Table of Contents
- OPI PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS 9
- Thinking Introversion 9
- Theoretical Orientation 9
- Estheticism 9
- Complexity 9
- Autonomy 9
- Religious Orientation 9
- Social Extroversion 9
- Impulse Expression 9
- Personal Integration 9
- Anxiety Level 9
- Altruism 9
- Practical Outlook 9
- Masculinity - Femininity 9
- From OPI Manual 9
- GROUP MEAN CHANGE SCORES - OMNIBUS PERSONALITY INVENTORY 10
- GROUP 10
- TOTAL 10
- 4.00-1.00 10
- -4.14 10
- ANALYSIS OF CO-VARIANCE SUMMARY DATA 11
- OPI ALTRUISM SCALE 11
- SOURCE 11
- Freedom 11
- Adjusted 11
- Adjusted 11
- Mean 11
- Between 11
- Experimental 11
- 0.5844 11
- Experimentals 11
- Between Control 11
- Within 11
- Experimental 11
- Groups Error 11
- FACULTY-STUDENT SOCIAL DISTANCE SCALE - 12
- FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION 12
- I prefer to have nothing to do with 12
- I am willing to teach undergraduate students and to work 12
- ALL FACULTY 12
- PARTICIPANTS 12
- I am interested in working with undergraduate students 12
- I am interested in helping 12
- I am interested in having undergraduate students as my 12
- All Faculty N 70 12
- M 6.5 12
- M 8.0 12