Investigating the Instructor's Role in New Student Sense of Classroom Community

<p>The purpose of the study is to determine whether an instructor’s intentional effort to build community in his/her classroom results in a higher sense of classroom community among students. This study also examined what types of community building activities were conducted by each instructor and measured the students’ responses to each different activity. This was intended to establish a preliminary set of best practices for creating classroom community. A two-part questionnaire, including an adapted version of the Classroom Community Scale, was administered to instructors (n=5) and students (n=113) enrolled in two or four unit courses at California Polytechnic State University. These courses were designed to introduce students to their chosen majors. One-way analysis of variance, and two-proportion tests were used to determine the relationship between instructor intentions and student sense of classroom community, and the differences in student sense of classroom community between courses. Findings indicate that what course a student was in was the significant factor in determining sense of classroom community. Additionally, students accurately perceived their instructor’s intent to create classroom community. </p>

Name thesis:degree_name

MS in Agriculture - Recreation, Parks and Tourism Management

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Davidson, Alix E

Contributors dc:contributor

• Jeffrey Jacobs

• sense of community
• sense of belonging
• team building
• classroom community
• Community-Based Learning
• Curriculum and Instruction
• Curriculum and Social Inquiry

Identifier

10.15368/theses.2012.71

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.calpoly.edu:theses-1790