What are the Academic Expectations of Incoming College Students?

Dr. Matthew D. Duncan, Assistant Professor

Ryan Korstange, Assistant Professor & Coordinator of UNIV 1010 & 2020, Middle Tennessee State University

A students’ success in their first year in college is conditioned by their expectations. Understanding what students expect out of their academic experiences including coursework and interactions with faculty are at the heart of successful program design and effective teaching for first-year college students. When expectations do not align with experiences, students may experience decreased motivation and greater dissatisfaction (Byrne et al., 2012), which correlates to reduced learning and lower persistence and graduation rates (Casanova et al., 2019).

This study starts from the question, “what do students expect from their academic experiences?” Previous studies have investigated students’ expectations, but the results originated from retroactive data collection. This study, however, surveyed incoming students at new student orientation events held in the summer before their first semester of full-time enrollment in order to capture their expectations uninfluenced by any post-secondary academic experience.

Method

The survey was conducted at a four-year regional comprehensive public university with an enrollment of roughly 20,000 undergraduate students. The data was collected on the first day of a two-day orientation event required of all 3,312 incoming first-year students. We asked students about both the expectations about the learning context (i.e., classes and faculty) and for the actions they would take to facilitate their learning (i.e.., attending classes, studying, using resources). Demographic and personal data were not collected due to IRB constraints. Of the new-student orientation participants, 442 answered at least one question, and 320 completed the survey.

Our analysis identifies trends present in student responses to open-ended questions related to their expectations of the learning context. Coded qualitative data are summarized as word clouds, which illustrate the variety and relative frequency of student responses. An increase in text size denotes words that appeared more frequently, but word size is not to scale. Student responses were also constrained by the nature of the question (e.g., What three words describe your expectations of college faculty?). This limitation is important to keep in mind when reviewing the data.

Results: What are Students Expecting?

Students were asked to complete the sentence: “To be successful in college, students must …” Thematic coding of the 404 responses suggested that students expect academic success in college through showing up (28% of responses), putting in the time (23%), studying (19%), and commitment (7%). Yet, students do not have consistent expectations for attendance requirements (n=402): 1.5% expected no attendance policy, 33% expected optional attendance, 32% expected mandatory attendance, and 35% expected mandatory attendance but noted that the faculty would not care if they were absent. Other research indicates that the academic strategies students employ while attending class are not always the most effective (Korstange et al., 2019). The data suggests that incoming students at least understand the necessity of devoting time and effort to their academic work.

Expectations of Classes

Participants were asked open-ended questions about their expectations of both college classes and faculty. With regard to college classes, the students’ responses focused on the environment and rigor of the class. They also commented on the way information would be provided and their engagement with course content.

Rigor. Students expect that classes will be a rigorous and challenging encounter with novel material. When students described classes— rigor came up. The most frequent themes cast classes as challenging (34% of responses), hard (36%), and difficult (17%; see Figure 1).

Figure 1 Responses reflecting expectations of class rigor.

Stress. In addition, students expect that their class experience will be stressful, and they anticipate that classes will expose them to new material, which they predict will be exciting and helpful (see Figure 2). What is not clear from these results is whether students understand challenge or difficulty to be positive or negative. A similar question exists with their depiction of class as stressful. Likely both connotations are present in the results.

Figure 2 Responses reflecting expectations of class environment.

Engagement. Incoming students expect their classes to be fun, interactive, and engaging. These expectations emerge from trends in both students’ responses to qualitative questions about their expectations of classes and the faculty. Of the responses that characterized student expectations of engagement in class, a large proportion of students indicated that they expected for their classes to be fun (53%), interactive (21%), or engaging (13%; see Figure 3). Taken together, the data indicates that students are looking to be engaged or captivated by their college classes.

Expectations of Faculty

Students’ responses about their expectations of faculty most frequently included attentiveness or interest in students and their learning (or lack thereof), the perception of ease of access to the faculty, appearance, and presentation ability and style. Three overarching trends emerged from the thematic coding of these results. When students were asked to describe their expectations of the faculty, the responses related to the faculty’s presentation style and broke out into three categories: Fun or entertaining (31%), beneficial or effective (34%), and boring or unstimulating (36%).

Figure 3 Responses reflecting expectations of class engagement.

Fun. Though the students’ expectations of the faculty’s presentation style vary (see Figure 4), it is overwhelmingly clear that their responses lean toward expecting class sessions to be entertaining or, at a minimum, worth their attendance. The data indicates that students are looking to be engaged and that the faculty in their classes are well-prepared and effective, though perhaps that hope is mitigated by other expectations, such as being bored by lectures.

Figure 4 Responses reflecting expectations of faculty’s course presentation. Note. Low frequency responses removed.

Helpfulness. The data reflects conflicting student expectations about how faculty will mitigate the anticipated difficulty of college-level courses. When describing the concern students expected faculty to have for their learning, approximately 90% of responses described faculty as helpful or caring (see Figure 5).

Figure 5 Responses reflecting expectations of faculty concern.

Inaccessible. However, regarding access to the faculty, more than 50% of responses demonstrated that incoming students expect the faculty to be inaccessible or unapproachable (e.g., mean, intimidating, or distant; see Figure 6). The data suggests a misalignment of expectations. A noticeable portion of students expect that they will largely be on their own after class sessions end, while still expecting faculty to be caring and helpful. This misalignment of expectations is incredibly concerning. Faculty support is a significant catalyst for student learning, retention, and satisfaction (Trolian et al., 2016). The data indicates that students either incorrectly assume the faculty is inaccessible and thereby the students will potentially miss out on essential help, or that the faculty really is unavailable in which case the expectation is well-founded, if disappointing.

Figure 6 Responses reflecting expectations of faculty accessibility. Note. Low frequency responses removed.

Suggestions for Practice

Considering the preceding analysis, we offer three suggestions for practice for the faculty teaching first-year students. These suggestions offer strategies to either help students align their errant expectations, or to leverage their expectations to maximize their success in college.

1. Give students the opportunity to express their expectations early in the semester in order to identify and rectify misalignment. This research shows that students think that passing college classes requires that they show up and put in the work. Yet, other research demonstrates that students do not fully understand the type and amount of work necessary for success (Korstange et al., 2019). Early expectation-centered conversations provide a rich environment for students to explicitly articulate what they anticipate and provides a critical mechanism to begin the process of aligning those expectations with the reality of what college learning requires. As it relates to student success, the sooner expectations are aligned, the better.

2. Provide meaningful and active learning experiences. The results of this study demonstrate that students expect classes to be fun, engaging, and difficult, which correlates with other research on student perceptions of effective teaching (e.g., Prather, 2009). Not providing an engaging and interactive learning environment is detrimental to students’ learning. Not only do these interactive learning experiences create better learning, but they also provide an opportunity to meet student expectations for college. Ensuring quality student-centered instruction requires continual training and ongoing instructional redesign. This research serves as a reminder that students come to college expecting to learn, and they want to be engaged in their classes. They understand that this learning will require growth and change and anticipate that it will result in opportunities after graduation.

3. Faculty members must go out of their way to communicate the ways in which they are accessible to students outside class. This study reveals that students expect the faculty to be helpful but also inaccessible. In part, this discontinuity suggests students understand college faculty have a different function than high school teachers even if they aren’t sure what that function will be. From a course design perspective, faculty should clarify the role they expect to play in students’ learning. Students need to know when they should seek faculty help and how they can expect to find that help. Further, faculty need to be exceedingly careful to avoid student shaming since that may play into the students’ expectations that faculty are aloof or mean (Lauricella, 2019).

Misalignment between students’ expectations and their experiences produces tension. Students’ expectations correlate with motivation for learning, academic success, and general academic satisfaction. However, the misalignment of expectations threatens a student’s success, reducing learning, persistence, and graduation (Byrne et al., 2012). It is imperative that we know a lot more about what students expect and provide regular opportunities for re-alignment and reformation of their educational expectations in order to help our students learn and find success in the college environment.

References

Byrne, M., Flood, B., Hassall, T., Joyce, J., Montaño, J. L. A., González, J. M. G., & Tourna-Germanou, E. (2012). Motivations, expectations and preparedness for higher education: A study of accounting students in Ireland, the UK, Spain and Greece. Accounting Forum, 36(2), 134–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accfor.2011.12.001

Casanova, J. R., Almeida, L. S., Peixoto, F., Ribeiro, R.-B., & Marôco, J. (2019). Academic expectations questionnaire: A proposal for a short version. Sage Open, 9(1), 1–-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018824496

Korstange, R., Craig, M., & Duncan M. (2019). Understanding and addressing student procrastination in college. The Learning Assistance Review, 24(2), 57-70.

Lauricella, S. (2019) Darkness as the frenemy: Social media, student shaming, and building academic culture. Communication Education, 68(3), 386-393. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2019.1609055

Prather, C. D. (2009). Student perceptions of effective college teachers. Collegiate Aviation Review International, 27(2), 69-76. http://dx.doi. org/10.22488/okstate.18.100395

Trolian, T, L., Jach, E. A., Hanson, J. M., & Pascarella, E. T., (2016). Influencing academic motivation: The effects of student–faculty interaction. Journal of College Student Development, 57(7), 810–826. https://doi.org/10.1353/ csd.2016.0080

CONTACT

Dr. Matthew D. Duncan

matthew.duncan@mtsu.edu

Dr. Ryan Korstange

ryan.korstange@mtsu.edu