Student Satisfaction and Perceptions of Instructor Support in Studio Physics

Abstract

Abstract. This study investigates the pedagogical factors that impact students' satisfaction with studio-style physics courses. Students enrolled in various sections of a SCALE-UP style course at EKU (N=184) responded to a reformed version of the Pedagogical Expectancy Violation Assessment (PEVA) and a course satisfaction questionnaire. Within the PEVA, students identified their satisfaction with particular activities based on how often they expected them to occur or how often they had experienced them. Based on experiences, the items in the PEVA clustered into five factors, one of which concerned the instructor support that the students received. We found that expected course grade and instructor were both correlated with course satisfaction, but even when those predictors were controlled, students' satisfaction with instructor support was a significant predictor for course satisfaction but not for their expected course grade. Further, the more support students reported receiving, the higher their satisfaction. We discuss implications of these findings, especially in terms of how to respond to students desire for instructors to spend more time demonstrating how to solve problems on the board.

How personal effort, student interactions, and instructor support relate to physics student satisfaction

“…Because we were concerned with course satisfaction at week 14, we investigated the three factors generated from students' reported experiences in the course (Table 2). Doing so is consistent with previous analyses [3,4].…”

“…The instructor providing guidance for how to do activities 14. Presenting my problem solutions to the class In previous studies, we found that the better the students felt about how each cluster of related activities was implemented, the higher their overall satisfaction in the course [4]. However, we were unable to disentangle whether the students enjoyed the activity itself or rather were pleased by how often they experienced it.…”

“…In previous work, students' expected grades significantly predicted course satisfaction [4]; we also found a significant correlation between students' satisfaction and their expected grade in the class at week 14, r = .31, p < .01, such that students who expected a higher grade tended to be more satisfied with the course. Expected final course grade was not correlated with their expectations, experiences, or affect toward any factor.…”

“…Using a seven-point scale ranging from "almost constantly" to "almost never," students report the frequency they expect to encounter (or did encounter) certain activities in the classroom, listed in Table 1. In previous work, we have seen that certain items factor somewhat consistently into clusters related to personal effort, work with classmates, instructor support (or relationship-building with the instructor), and how the instructor leads class time, based on students' reported frequency of experiencing those activities [3,4].…”

Student satisfaction in interactive engagement-based physics classes

“…After modifying the measure somewhat (see Refs. [32,33], and [17] for details on revisions to the PEVA), we used a factor analysis to determine that the frequency with which students reported experiencing the activities clustered into four factors. By looking at the activities that principally loaded onto each factor, we identified these factors as related to instructor support, instructor-led class time, working with classmates, and working individually.…”