cover image: Influence of the Faculty on College Student Environment.

Influence of the Faculty on College Student Environment.

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

Alberti, Robert E.

Authorizing Institution
California State Polytechnic Coll., San Luis Obispo.
Peer Reviewed
F
Published in
United States of America

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