Factors associated with instructor and peer pre-help-seeking interactions among community college students

Abstract

Community colleges, or 2-year associate-degree granting institutions, tend to enroll large numbers of students deemed misprepared for college-level coursework. Such students may also not be as likely to seek help, a self-regulated activity that is challenging and fraught with social stigma. A key component of active learning and the help-seeking process is social interaction with both peers and instructors throughout the learning process. We conducted structural equation modeling on data from the 2018 Community College Survey of Student Engagement ( N = 17,045 students) to identify the degree to which they engaged in social interactions with instructors and peers and to explore which factors were most predictive of such pre-help-seeking interactions. Various psychological and sociodemographic factors were significantly associated with both instructor and peer interactions. We discuss implications for fostering environments that cultivate active learning interactions and help-seeking cultures.