Date of Award

6-21-2012

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Mark Fincher

Abstract

A causal-comparative, nonexperimental research study was conducted to analyze secondary data from the Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE). SENSE assesses community college student behaviors in the earliest weeks of college, along with practices that are most likely to engage students and encourage them to persist. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of student demographic variables (age, sex, generation status) and time-commitment variables (children, employment, college enrollment status) on the interpersonal aspect of classroom student engagement, as defined by instructor-student interaction, of community college students. The study also examined the relationship between these variables and interactions on students' intent to persist. A factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine significant differences in the instructor-student interaction and student-instructor interaction of students when analyzed in terms of demographic and time-commitment variables. Logistic regression was used to determine the relationship between the intent to persist among students and the predictor variables of instructor-student interaction, student-instructor interaction, age, sex, generation status, children, employment, and enrollment status. The findings indicated a differentiation between instructor-student interaction and student-instructor interaction. This differentiation, which suggests that instructors are initiating communication twice as much as students, signifies the need for instructors to develop strategies specifically designed to encourage students to become more engaged and more willing to initiate communication, especially during the crucial first weeks of the semester. Further analysis indicated that female students are more engaged than male students with regard to instructor-student interaction and student-instructor interaction. Female students were also found to be more likely to intend to persist than male students, thereby indicating the need to implement strategies which promote and increase interactions with male students. Additionally, results indicated that the gender of instructors may impact student-instructor interaction and student perceptions of immediacy behaviors. The findings also indicated that nontraditional students were not only more engaged through instructor-student interaction and student-instructor interaction than traditional students, but also more likely to intend to persist than traditional students. Furthermore, the findings indicated that students who have higher instructor-student interaction and student-instructor interaction are more likely to persist than those who do not.

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