Perceptions of instructional behaviors among college faculty members and students in a liberal arts college setting.
Author(s)
Brooks, Phyllis M.Keywords
Education, Adult and Continuing.
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Sorry, the full text of this article is not available in Huskie Commons. Please click on the alternative location to access it.139 p.
This study examined relationships between liberal arts college faculty and their students as to how they perceived instructional behaviors. The influx of adult students into college led the researcher to examine the extent that college faculty employ adult learning principles in their instructional behaviors. Since little research has been conducted at liberal arts colleges that serve adult student populations concerning the practice of adult learning principles advanced by authorities, this study was determined to have significance.The sample for this study was volunteer faculty and students from a small private liberal arts college. The college serves both traditional-age and adult students. The study employed the Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS) and Adult Learning Principles (ALP) to determine the faculty and student perceptions of instructional behaviors and the faculty practice of adult learning principles.Three major conclusions were drawn. First, student perception of instructional behaviors were significantly related to faculty perceptions. Assessment by faculty and students placed faculty instructional behaviors in the situational and teacher-centered ranges on the educational orientation scale. None of the faculty instructional behaviors were assessed to be learner centered with regard to the scale.Second, the study revealed that students were able to rate the desirability of instructional behaviors and express a preference for instructional behaviors different from those observed in their instructors. The preference typically was for more teacher-centered instruction.Third, faculty perceptions of instructional behaviors and their relationship to specific demographic and personal variables indicated that faculty who had continuing professional education experience were relatively more situational in their instructional behaviors than faculty without those experiences. No significant relationship was found between instructional behaviors and age, sex, level of degree attainment, years of teaching, or teaching area. Finally, through the research an instrument for assessing student perceptions of desirable instructional behaviors ALP was developed, which might be used in additional research of this nature.
Date
2011-06-22Identifier
oai:commons.lib.niu.edu:10843/9453http://commons.lib.niu.edu/handle/10843/9453
http://hdl.handle.net/10843/9453