Student-Faculty Interaction

Abstract

College Impact Theories such as Tinto's theory of integration (1993), Astin's theory of student involvement (1984, 1993) and Kuh's theory of student engagement (2003) all link student-faculty interaction with student educational outcomes. Seminal literature review such as Pascarella (1980) and Pasaralla and Terenzi (2005) reported empirical studies consistently support that frequent and meaningful student-faculty interaction has an impact on outcomes such as career plans and educational aspirations, student satisfaction, intellectual and personal development, academic achievement, and college persistence. More recent reviews (Cole and Griffins, 2013) highlighted gender and racial/ethnic differences, as well as institutional and cultural factors that should not be overlooked. Currently there is a dearth of research on the subject beyond United States.

The current study explored the pattern of student-faculty interaction and its impact on student outcome from a sample of 485 Chinese students enrolled in universities and community colleges in Hong Kong and Macau. Results indicated that students had limited interaction with faculty in general (as compared to undergraduate students in the U.S.). Path analysis indicated that student-faculty interaction did not have an effect on academic outcomes such as GPA. For female students, student-faculty interaction impacted their participation in extracurricular activities and student satisfaction. The teacher-student relationship in a Chinese cultural context will be discussed, to shed light on the role of student-faculty interaction in college education in a globalized world.