Which classroom service encounters make students happy or unhappy? Insights from an online CIT study

摘要

Purpose - This paper aims to explore satisfactory and dissatisfactory student-professor encountersrnin higher education from a student's perspective. The critical incident technique (CIT) is used torncategorise positive and negative student-professor interactions and to reveal quality dimensions ofrnprofessors.rnDesign/methodology/approach - An exploratory study using an online application of thernwell-established CIT method was conducted. The study took place at a large European university.rnA total of 96 students took part in the study on a voluntary basis and reported 164 incidents.rnRespondents were aged between 19 and 24 years (x = 23.2) and slightly more female studentsrn(52 per cent) filled in the online CIT questionnaire than male students (48 per cent). On average, everyrnstudent provided 1.7 incidents.rnFindings - The results of the critical incident sorting process support previous classification systemsrnthat used three major groups to thoroughly represent the domain of (unsatisfactory student-professorrnencounters. The results of the CIT study also revealed ten quality dimensions of professors,rncorroborating previous research in this area.rnResearch limitations/implications - Owing to the exploratory nature of the study and the scopernand size of its student sample, the results outlined are tentative in nature. The research study also onlyrninvestigates the experiences of one stakeholder group.rnPractical implications - Gaining knowledge of students' classroom experiences should bernbeneficial for professors to design their teaching programmes. Based on the results, universities mightrnconsider the introduction of student contracts or student satisfaction guarantees to manage studentrnexpectations effectively.rnOriginality/value - The paper was the first to successfully apply an online version of the CITrntechniques to the issue of higher education services. This paper shows that the CIT method is a usefulrntool for exploring student-professor encounters in higher education. The paper has hopefully openedrnup an area of research and methodology that could reap considerable further benefits for researchersrninterested in this area.