By December 2015 our initial results were showing that an instructor’s choice of teaching practices absolutely has an impact on student wellbeing. Our preliminary findings from the 2015 UES and fall-term student focus groups suggest that student wellbeing is enhanced when instructors choose teaching practices that:
- Offer students clear expectations for how to succeed in the course,
- Foster a safe and supportive classroom environment,
- Support the student’s sense of connection with the course material,
- Establish a personal connection with the students, and
- Foster peer to peer connections between students.
To get more in-depth information on these topics we fine-tuned our questions for the winter term student focus groups, instructor interviews and our campus-wide student survey (part of the 2016 UES).
We added a couple of additional questions to the winter-term student focus groups in hopes of getting more information about how an instructor can foster connections between classmates (in the fall we heard that peer connections are important, but didn’t hear much about how an instructor can foster them), and what a safe and supportive classroom means to the students (since it was one of the top two responses from the 2015 UES, but we didn’t hear much about it in the focus groups). The full list of fall and winter term student focus group questions can be seen here.
As part of our winter-term instructor interviews, we shared this list with the instructors, and asked them to comment on the teaching practices and, if applicable, how the instructor integrates them into his/her classroom. The full list of fall and winter term instructor interview questions can be seen here.
Can you think of any other questions to ask our students or instructors in order to learn more about the impacts of teaching practices on student wellbeing? Feel free to share them with us by commenting below.