The road to hel(l)icopter teaching: how do instructors make sense of their helicopter teaching behaviors and student effects?

The goal of this study was to explore college teachers’ sensemaking (Weick, 1995) of their communicative patterns of helicopter-teaching behaviors and perceived student effects. Semi-structured interviews with college-level instructors were conducted, and results from thematic analysis revealed teachers engaged in informational and relational helicopter-teaching behaviors. Informational behaviors included excessive involvement and over-preparation on student assignments, simplifying course content for ease of understanding, and over-accommodation of student requests for leniency. Relational behaviors included excessive validation/encouragement and blurred relational boundaries. Instructors perceived these behaviors to help students earn higher grades, but concurrently created grade inflation. While helicopter teaching may help students achieve course learning objectives, participants noted that these behaviors may also prevent students from developing critical thinking skills. Finally, instructors reported that these behaviors demonstrated their caring and concern, but that students may also experience increased dependence on them. Instructors expressed difficulty in making sense of their role given the desire to be helpful, but not to hover.