Research shows that students benefit from outside-of-class interaction with instructors (Guerrero & Rod, 2013; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005) yet rarely take advantage of visiting faculty during office hours (Abdul-Wahab et al., 2019; Bippus et al., 2003; Griffin et al., 2014). We interviewed 39 students in six focus groups to learn more about why this is the case. Our transcribed focus group discussions revealed six barriers students experience interacting with faculty during office hours and six ways students perceive faculty mitigating the barriers. From these data, we note three implications for instructors as they understand and manage their interaction with students outside of class.
Tag: office hours
“Office Hours are Kind of Weird”: Reclaiming a Resource to Foster Student-Faculty Interaction
Office hours reserve time and space for student-faculty interaction, a benchmark for engaging students in educationally purposive activities. Our study finds a mismatch between the institutionally intended purpose of office hours and student perceptions of office hours. We examine student perceptions of office hours with results from a survey administered at a public research institution. We conclude that it is necessary for institutions — large public research institutions, particularly – to do more to demonstrate to students the value for interacting with faculty and to consistently support the development of relationships between undergraduates and those who teach them.