Social-Psychological Accessibility and Faculty-Student Interaction Beyond the Classroom

Abstract

A survey of faculty members at six diverse colleges and universities indicates that the amount of interaction college faculty have with students outside of class is related to faculty accessibility for such interaction. Further, among the most important indicators of accessibility were the teaching practices used by faculty members inside their classrooms. It is asserted that these teaching practices communicate to students how accessible a teacher is for interaction outside the classroom, especially in discussion areas not usually prescribed by the faculty-student role relationship. Data suggesting some of the consequences of out-of-class interaction for faculty are also presented. At the core of most critiques of American higher education is the assertion that effective education requires close working relationships between faculty and undergraduate students. Indeed, whether implicitly or explicitly, many recent indictments of higher education have been made from a philosophical vantage point which posits the importance of close faculty-student interaction not only as a means by which the transmission of knowledge and student intellectual growth is best facilitated, but as an educational goal in and of itself. While it is entirely possible for a teacher to establish close working relationships with his undergraduates as a group, unless his classes are quite small, out-of-class interaction is probably necessary if close, interpersonal relationships between teacher and individual student are to develop. In any case, interaction beyond the classroom would appear to be a *Based on data from the Study of Faculty Characteristics and Faculty