Teaching Hope: The Influence of College Faculty Teaching Practices on Undergraduate Student Success

Within the framework of hope defined by Snyder et al. (1991) as being comprised of agency and pathways thinking in the context of goal achievement, this study investigated the potential of faculty hopeful teaching practices to positively influence college student hope and success. Hope functions in student success frameworks as a factor that contributes to improved academic outcomes including test scores, GPA, persistence, and graduation. It has state and trait-like qualities that may be influenced during a student’s time on campus, particularly through interaction with faculty. Hope has been previously shown to correlate with improved outcomes across multiple life-domains relevant for post-graduation and lifelong success, achievement, and happiness. Using a quantitative, self-report survey methodology, student perceptions of the frequency of hopeful faculty teaching behaviors were collected from a convenience sample of undergraduate students (N=236) via the Hopeful Teaching Practices Inventory (HTPI), an instrument developed specifically for this study. Factor analysis resulted in the HTPI structure consisting of three distinct scales representing faculty caring, hope, and feedback practices as suggested by Snyder (2005), all with α reliability scores > .84. The frequency of the teaching practices measured by these scales were moderately correlated to student hope, and significantly related when controlling for background characteristics. The HTPI scale scores, and particularly the scale representing Snyder et al.’s (1991) conceptualization of hope, predicted student success when controlling for background characteristics. Student hope was also found to be a significant predictor of student success, confirming prior research on the positive benefits of hope. Several interactions with student and professor background characteristics were also observed, yielding further insight into how student-faculty interactions based in hopeful teaching may individually influence student hope and success outcomes