Book cover for The Faculty Factor: Developing Faculty Engagement with Living Learning Communities
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ISBN: 9781642672534

January 2023

With vignette “An Indelible Mark” by Melissa Shew

Living-learning communities offer a unique structure for faculty to engage with students in novel ways. In this chapter, the authors  provide an overview of current research on faculty and student engagement in LLCs, offer a framework for considering how faculty might shape their engagement with students, and advance strategies for developing capacity for faculty-student interaction. In closing, the chapter offers ways to assess meaningful interactions between faculty and students. 

Discussion Questions

  • What elements of the framework for faculty-student engagement in LLCs resonate with your experience?
  • How might teaching need to transform for faculty and students to develop effective mentoring relationships?
  • Using the Cox and Orehovec typology of student-faculty engagement, how would you characterize the interactions of Dr. Shew, the faculty member who wrote the chapter’s vignette?
  • What structures can be put into place to scaffold meaningful faculty and student interactions?
  • What critical roles might residence hall staff play in creating activities that promote faculty and student interaction?
  • Referring to the vignette, how might a student in Dr. Shew’s class tell this story? What would be similar? What would be different?