In addition to asking students about their preferences for different teaching practices, we asked students how often they experienced the 14 teaching practices. The three most commonly experiences teaching practices among the 5548 respondents were:
- When the instructor is accessible outside of class (i.e. office hours, email)
- When the instructor creates/fosters a safe classroom environment
- When the instructor is clear about the course objectives
When analyzed by demographic group (year level, gender, faculty and international student status) the top three remained constant, however there was some variation between the order of the top two.
We also compared the student experience of different teaching practices to other questions asked on the UES. The data shows a small, statistically significant positive correlation between all 14 teaching practices and their level of satisfaction with their UBC experience.
Of the top 3 most important teaching practices listed yesterday – the following percentage of students experienced it (raw data here):
| Top 3 most important Teaching Practices | Percentage of Students who reported experiencing this practice |
| 1) When the instructor is clear about the course objectives | 56% of student report experiencing this either frequently or always |
| 2) When the instructor takes complicated assignments and breaks them into smaller components | 26% of student report experiencing this either frequently or always |
| 3 When the instructor is clear about the course objectives | 70% of student report experiencing this either frequently or always |
There is a discrepancy between teaching practices that students identified as contributing most positively to their wellbeing, and the teaching practices that they experience most frequently. What do you think of the findings? What contributes to this discrepancy? We’d love to hear your thoughts!