Faculty teaching and interactions with students can provide insight into how students recognize that their faculty are interested and attentive to their needs (Pychyl et al., 2022). These teaching practices typically include providing clear and organized instruction, considering students’ perspectives and personal goals, and providing students opportunities to engage with different learning strategies (Smith & Baik, 2019). Such teaching practices were even more on display as higher education continued to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, four items about new student-centered teaching practices were added to the NSSE to supplement existing items in the Effective Teaching Practices Engagement Indicator (Figure 1). These items were added to be more responsive to online learning, to capture innovative pedagogical practice, and to present more opportunities to learn about different ways faculty incorporated teaching practices in their classrooms.

Generally, student ratings of these four effective teaching practices were relatively high. Only a little over half of students reported their faculty substantially taught in ways that students preferred to learn (56%). Given how the 2021 academic year was fueled by adaptability to meet the needs of ever-changing circumstances, it is a highlight to report that faculty instruction was relatively effective for students.

We also explored more deeply how effective teaching practices relate to other forms of student engagement (Table 1). For example, students who perceived higher quality interactions with their faculty were more likely to experience faculty members who engaged in effective teaching.

In addition to the quality of interactions, students who experienced more effective teaching from faculty also perceived more institutional support to help them succeed and were more likely to feel valued by their institution. These results are supported by relationships found between the Effective Teaching Practices Engagement Indicator and other Engagement Indicators.

These results exhibit how valuable quality interactions and relationships between students and faculty are to students’ perceptions of how supportive their institution is of them and their success. Furthermore, these results show how despite difficulties faculty have experienced with the COVID-19 pandemic, they are still showing up for students to bring them quality experiences in the classroom.

Making teaching adjustments during the pandemic is great, but that still did not eliminate the possibility of faculty experiencing stress. Of the various things that can contribute to faculty stress such as research and service responsibilities, work environment, and continued employment, it was teaching responsibilities followed by family responsibilities that gave faculty the most stress during the pandemic (Figure 5). In addition to what contributed to their stress during the pandemic, around half (49%) of faculty felt their mental health and sleeping patterns got worse. And those were not the only things that faculty felt had worsened, 35% of faculty felt their relationships with colleagues suffered along with 35% feeling that their relationships with students had suffered as well.

Pychyl, T. A., Flett, G. L., Long, M., Carreiro, E., & Azil, R. (2022). Faculty perceptions of mattering in teaching and learning: A qualitative examination of the views, values, and teaching practices of award-winning professors. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 40(1), 142-158. 

Smith, C. D., & Baik, C. (2021). High-impact teaching practices in higher education: A best evidence review. Studies in Higher Education, 46(8), 1696-1713.