Personality and Interpersonal Relations in the College Classroom.

Abstract

I recently received a letter from a colleague who teaches at one of our most serious-minded colleges. He had just finished giving a course which he had offered several times before. This time he felt things had clicked, he was sure of his material, he thought he was getting his points across and he enjoyed himself. To his astonishment he found that only two students had enrolled in the course for the next year. He could not understand why. Now one might speculate as to the reasons. It is possible that scheduling was an important factor. My colleague's section had been shifted from the spring to the winter term, and a second section was to be given by another man in the spring. Perhaps other quite extraneous factors were at work. But it is Note. This investigation was carried out during the tenure of a Special Research Fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health of the United States Public Health Service. The ideas here presented have an empirical base in an interview study of university faculty carried on by the writer, Ruth Johnson, and Ving Ellis at the University of California in April and May of 1959. This research is now being continued by Ving Ellis and myself. Much of what I say is based on my experience and observations during almost 15 years of college teaching. I have not hesitated to present my ideas in a more comprehensive and conclusive fashion than my research and experience justify because we need ideas above all to have some significant hypotheses to test. Special acknowledgment is due to Professor Gail Kennedy and to Natalie Katz. This study has been carried on under the auspices of the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of California and its director, Saxton Pope, provided both inspiration and encouragement.

Eight professors: A study on college students' preferences among their teachers.

“…Evidence indicates that the perceptions of students regarding teachers are more a function of internal frames of reference than of concrete teacher characteristics (Gage, 1953;Katz, 1962). Knapp's (1962) summaries point out that students tend to have sharply denned, consistent images of professors and emphasize personalsocial rather than intellectual characteristics in ratings of "effective" teachers.…”

A Departmental Approach to Professional Growth for Faculty Members∗

“…In general, a department can assist the professional growth of faculty members in four ways: (1) by assigning duties that are appropriate to the person's career stage, interests, and needs; (2) by linking professional rewards with growth; (3) by arranging faculty activities that provide opportunities for growth; and (4) by providing the right kind of support at the right times. We will look at each of these in a little more detail, but it is worth noting beforehand that there is nothing unique about these suggestions.…”