Methods of engaging with psychology’s best students: A survey of teachers at 4-year colleges and universities.

Abstract

Difficult students are a major topic in the pedagogical literature, and teachers will find ample advice for managing undesirable student behaviors. However, additional guidance is needed for teachers who want to engage their best students. To explore how teachers work with their best students, psychology faculty (N = 205) from 4-year colleges and universities completed a survey in Fall 2022 about their best, worst, and average students, with the best students being defined as those who are most rewarding and enjoyable to work with and the worst students being defined as the least rewarding and enjoyable to work with. Teachers described their best students as being engaged and motivated, as possessing strong intellectual abilities, and as having positive personality traits. Teachers perceived themselves as spending less time and effort on their best students than their worst students and as spending less time and effort on their best students than they considered ideal. As evidence of this dynamic, 58% of teachers had taken intentional steps to increase time and effort spent on their best students, but 78% had taken intentional steps to increase time and effort spent on their worst students. The most common methods teachers used to engage their best students were providing research opportunities, personal contact, and enriching classroom activities. These results suggest that many teachers would like to spend more time and effort on their best students. In addition, there are specific methods teachers can adopt to achieve that goal, many of which are high-impact, model teaching practices.