Kevin Eagan, Tanya Figueroa, Sylvia Hurtado, Josephine Gasiewski
AIR Annual Forum, New Orleans, LA
June 6, 2012
Background
 Importance of student-faculty interaction in STEM
 Academic performance
 Motivation
 Persistence
 Critique of introductory STEM courses as cold and
intimidating classes that encourage passive learning
 Accessibility cues and an ethic of care as antecedents
to interaction
 Signal faculty’s interest in undergraduates
 Students use these cues in deciding whether, when, and
how to interaction with faculty
Purpose
To examine the individual- and classroom-level factors
that predict the extent to which students perceive their
professors as demonstrating an ethic of care in
introductory STEM courses.
Theoretical Frameworks
 Development of rapport
 Mutual attentiveness
 Positivity (e.g., mutual liking, friendliness)
 Coordination (e.g., balance and harmony in interaction)
 Importance of nonverbal cues
 Interactional justice
 Quality of interpersonal relationships
 Emphasis on individual dignity and respect
Accessibility Cues and Ethic of Care
 Accessibility: physical and psychological
 Attitudes, beliefs, and values of faculty regarding
interaction with students
 Actual presence and availability of faculty
 Accessibility (Positive Behaviors)
 Demonstrate interest
 Reassure students by welcoming their inquiries
 Treat students as individuals
Faculty Behaviors and Characteristics
Signaling an Ethic of Care
 Empathy
 Sense of humor
 Belief that professors play an important role in
students’ lives
 Valuing teaching and investing time in instructional
improvement
 Avoid intimidation or embarrassment of students
Sequential, Explanatory
Mixed Methods Design
 Collected, analyzed, and integrated both quantitative
and qualitative data during the research process
 Quantitative data collected first; informed selection of
institutional sites for qualitative data collection
 Data fully integrated during the analysis
 Quantitative data provided a broad picture of
students’ engagement
 Qualitative data more deeply explored student views
regarding their introductory classroom experience
Connecting
Quantitative
& Qualitative
Phases
QUANTITATIVE
Data Analysis
QUANTITATIVE
Data Collection
Integrating
Quantitative &
Qualitative
Results
Qualitative Data
Collection
Qualitative Data
Analysis
Quantitative Methodology
 Four data sources
 Pre- and post-survey for students in introductory course
 One-time survey for faculty teaching introductory course
 Sample
 15 colleges and universities
 76 introductory STEM courses
 3,205 students





52% White
61% Women
42% aspired to earn a medical degree
21% aspired to earn a Ph.D. or an Ed.D.
75% reported majoring in a STEM discipline.
Quantitative Methodology
 Outcome variable – Student Perception of Faculty
Ethic of Care
 Alpha = 0.88
 Items: faculty provided feedback, cared about students’
well-being, encouraged questions, valued diverse life
experiences, was open to alternative viewpoints,
effectively handled classroom controversy, was sensitive
to multicultural issues
Quantitative Methodology
 Independent variables
 Background characteristics
 High school preparation
 Introductory STEM course experiences
 Faculty behaviors and attitudes
Quantitative Methodology
 Weighted data to adjust for non-response bias
 Missing values analysis
 Hierarchical linear model
Qualitative Methodology
 Eight sites
 1 HBCU, 1HSI, 6 PWIs
 Two data sources
 Students: 41 focus groups (n = 241 students)
 54% White
 21% Asian/Asian America
 14% African American
 8% Latino
 3% Native American
 62% Women
 Faculty: 25 in-depth interviews with faculty

Chemistry, biology , mathematics, & engineering
Qualitative Methodology
 Semi-structured interview protocol
 Experiences in introductory STEM courses, motivation,
course structure, learning, instruction, & assessment
 Goals and objectives for introductory STEM courses,
pedagogical approaches, structure, forms of assessment,
& institutional support for teaching
 Emergent code development
 Open coded in NVivo8
 Inter-rater reliability: 80-85%
 Re-validated coding architecture
 Linked codes to participant attributes
Background and Pre-College
Predictors
 Women (+)
 URM (-)
 Higher HS biology grades (+)
 Honors/AP chemistry courses in HS (-)
Caring about Students’ Well-Being
I have to feel like I’m cared for, not necessarily that I
need to learn. If the professor shows that, oh, you
were sick one day. “Oh, well, how are you?” or “You
seem like you didn’t do too well on the last test or
something. Did something go wrong with you?” or
kind of stuff like that…More about caring about me
as a person more than a student. (Western Private
Masters University)
Learning Students’ Names and Their
Stories
On our first recitation [the professor] called each one
of us up and was like, “I connect names with stories so
tell me your name and tell me something about you,”
and then by the second recitation class he knew
everyone’s name. He actually took the time out of
his daily schedule and he went home to really,
really understand who each of us were, first name,
last name out of his over 150 students... it was
amazing that he actually cared to do that while it was
such a big lecture, and I wouldn’t have expected that.
(Scott, Northeastern Private Master’s College
Caring about Student Learning
He really cares that you learn the material, and he will
do almost anything to help you learn it like time-wise.
He’ll spend enough time, which is really rare. I had a
really good Chem II teacher who would take
evenings out and have his students – this was over
the summer even, and the students would come in
the evenings and he would just work through
problem after problem. So it just, it really showed
that he cared. (Kate, Southwestern Private Research
University)
Class Discussion Predicts a Stronger
Sense of Care
Most of my, my professors, they’re pretty much approachable
like, you know, they always ask us do you have any questions or
not, like am I going too fast, do you understand, and we’re
allowed to like raise your, we’re allowed to like interact with
him, you know, to show that we understand. (Marc,
Southeastern Public Research University)
Getting the students to talk to you in class … and having the
other students see your interaction is huge, yeah, and it
really helps, rather than just standing up and saying stuff, but
stopping and getting that interaction. It’s hard to do. It’s hard to
get them—it’s hard to get them to talk, … It’s always a challenge.
(Professor Reyes, Western Public Research University)
Affirming Students’ Participation
I try to make whatever answer they say to be the
right answer to some question…I’ll say, “That would
be true if we were doing this, but now we’re doing this,
so why is this not true?” I think you can ask without
making a student feel—I think they know I care about
them. I think they know that I want them to learn....I
think they know when I don’t let them off the hook it’s
because I care about them. I’ll kinda joke, “This is that
tough love stuff. Come on, you can do it.” (Professor
Alpert, Southwestern Private Research University)
Embarrassing Students
If you ask a question he’ll like make you stand up, and
explain it to the class. You’re like, “Okay clearly if I’m
asking a question I don’t know what’s going on. So
why should I explain it to the class?” And so you’re
just kinda standing up there like really
awkwardly, and you like point at something. And
obviously you’re saying something’s wrong. And
he’s like, “Does anybody have any comments?” And so
people would be like, “Yeah that’s wrong.” And you’re
like, “Okay let me sit down then. Someone else
explain it.” Or I don’t know maybe you could teach.
So it’s like really frustrating. (Jasmine, Midwestern
Public Research University)
Boredom vs. Excitement in the
Classroom
The secret to teaching is to make it not boring. Math classes
inherently are sort of boring, so you have to make jokes and things
like that. (Professor Pace, Western Research University)
My Stats teacher [is] just not normal. I don't know how to explain
him. But the class is fun, I enjoy it, I hardly ever yawn or anything
in there, even when I'm just really tired. But it makes me
engaged, and it makes me wanna learn, because you know,
he's always yelling or -- not yelling at us, but you know,
yelling. Just to be weird. But. I mean, it makes it exciting
and it makes me say, "Okay," and it actually helps when it
comes time for asking questions. I ask a million and one
questions in that class…I still really enjoy the class because of my
teacher. (Southwestern Private Research University)
Office Hours and Co-Curricular
Experiences
She will sit down with you one-on-one. If you just, all you
have to do is just ask her. She’ll sit down with you one on
one. She’ll work through the problem step by step by
step until you get it, and if you exhaust – for some
reason if you exhaust all the problems inside of our
textbook, she’ll make up other ones right on the spot
and work with you step by step by step until you actually
get it. (Madison, Northeastern Private Masters College)
I’d rather go to my TA. Less intimidating. (Karly, Western
Public Research University)
Faculty Awareness of Classroom
Dynamics
There is a huge gap between the atmosphere that you think
you are creating in your course and the atmosphere that
you are. I am constantly trying to remember that. I want to
have a classroom where my students never feel inhibited about
telling me I have just done something wrong or saying,
‘[Professor Hume], I don’t understand you.’ I am constantly
getting the feedback to my students from my students so I think
I am the nicest guy in the world but then I get feedback from my
students that I intimidate them in class and they are afraid to
point out things and so then I have to back up and apologize,
and reiterate that that is not the kind of classroom atmosphere I
am trying to build. (Professor Hume, Southeastern Public
Research University)
Discussion
 Students seek minimal level of care
 Recognize students and learn something about them
 Large classes are no impediment
 Mutual responsibility of students
 Take advantage of office hours, other opportunities to
connect with faculty
 Faculty signal care and attentiveness through verbal
and nonverbal cues
 Encouraging questions and affirming participation
 Embarrassing students or dismissing questions
Conclusion
 Demonstrate care through enthusiasm in the
classroom and dynamic instructional strategies
 Develop an awareness of classroom dynamics
Contact Info
Faculty/Co-PIs:
Sylvia Hurtado
Mitchell Chang
Postdoctoral Scholars:
Kevin Eagan
Josephine Gasiewski
Administrative
Staff:
Dominique
Harrison
Graduate Research Assistants:
Tanya Figueroa
Gina Garcia
Juan Garibay
Felisha Herrera
Bryce Hughes
Cindy Mosqueda
Papers and reports are available for download from project website:
http://heri.ucla.edu/nih
Project e-mail: herinih@ucla.edu
This study was made possible by the support of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIH Grant Numbers 1 R01
GMO71968-01 and R01 GMO71968-05, the National Science Foundation, NSF Grant Number 0757076, and the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act of 2009 through the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIH Grant 1RC1GM090776-01. This
independent research and the views expressed here do not indicate endorsement by the sponsors.