Total number of undergraduate respondents = 151 (out of 190 marching graduates = 79% response)
The back side of the "marching card" from which the faculty reader reads each student's name at Commencement contained an assessment question. Graduating students were personally asked to respond to this question while they waited in the Vadalabene Center/Student Fitness Center gym prior to the processional. The cards were collected when students handed them to the reader.
What do you think makes for a truly inspirational teaching professor? Please rank the traits in order of importance (1 being most important).
_____Integrates and connects new learning with prior learning
_____Introduces new, surprising, even shocking ideas
_____Cultivates academic, one-on-one relationships with students
_____Holds high expectations that challenge limits of performance
_____Opens new opportunities
_____Manifests great content knowledge
_____Develops cooperative behavior so students learn from each other
_____Encourages active, self-motivated learning
_____Gives prompt feedback on student performance
_____Respects diverse talents and ways of learning
_____Other_________________________________________
_____Other_________________________________________
Commentary: The traits listed here are those that SIUE graduating students chose as identifying an inspirational teaching professor, not merely an adequate one or even an excellent one. Consistently ranking at or near the top were "integrates and connects new learning with prior learning," and "cultivates professional, one-on-one relationships with students." However, some traits that students recognize as valuable and that researchers in the field know to be important for good learning, such as "gives prompt feedback on student performance," did not attain a high ranking here. A low ranking for such traits does not imply that they are of low importance to students or that they are not the marks of an effective teaching professor. We believe it does mean that while such traits are appropriately regarded as important for teaching and learning excellence, they were not identified by SIUE graduating students as the distinguishing marks that separate out the inspirational teaching professor.
| Integrates and connects | Introduces new ideas | Cultivates academic relationships | Holds high expectations | Opens opportunities | Manifests content knowledge | Develops student cooperation | Encourages active learning | Gives prompt feedback | Respects diverse talents | |
| Arts & Sciences | (N=75 out of 105 = 71% response) | |||||||||
| Mean Ranking | 4.38 | 4.91 | 4.69 | 4.64 | 5.01 | 5.45 | 6.7 | 4.77 | 6.35 | 5.65 |
| Standard Error | 0.35 | 0.32 | 0.35 | 0.31 | 0.32 | 0.32 | 0.3 | 0.29 | 0.29 | 0.39 |
| Business | (N=40 out of 40 = 100% response) | |||||||||
| Mean Ranking | 3.77 | 4.85 | 3.87 | 5.38 | 4.62 | 5.55 | 5.26 | 5.74 | 6.36 | 6.18 |
| Standard Error | 0.41 | 0.45 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.45 | 0.49 | 0.4 | 0.47 | 0.49 | 0.57 |
| Education | (N=23 out of 28 = 82% response) | |||||||||
| Mean Ranking | 4.34 | 4.22 | 3.39 | 5.43 | 5.78 | 6.22 | 6.57 | 4.48 | 6.39 | 6.39 |
| Standard Error | 0.48 | 0.57 | 0.47 | 0.56 | 0.56 | 0.59 | 0.63 | 0.62 | 0.7 | 0.74 |
| Engineering | (N=13 out of 17 = 76% response) | |||||||||
| Mean Ranking | 3.33 | 4.54 | 3.92 | 4.69 | 6.25 | 4.69 | 6.62 | 4.85 | 6.15 | 6.25 |
| Standard Error | 0.75 | 0.66 | 0.94 | 0.77 | 0.9 | 0.72 | 0.85 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.89 |
| Nursing | (N=0 out of 0 = --% response) | |||||||||
| Mean Ranking | No undergraduate students present at this commencement | |||||||||
Students wrote in other traits. While the number of times these traits were mentioned was not high enough to acquire ranking status in the table above, the traits themselves are listed below. The number of times each was mentioned is shown in parentheses.
Arts & Sciences
Intellectual honesty (knows/understands more than one point of view) (1), sense of humor (1)
Business
None
Education
Listens (1), always being there for professionally for students (1), modifying material for different learning styles (1)
Engineering
Communicates effectively and through knowledge of subject (1), uses skills to truly inspire others to reach for greatness (1), available out of class (1)
Nursing
None
