A Cross-Cultural, Exploratory Study of Students' Reluctance to Attend Office Hours

Yassir Semmar (Qatar University)

Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives

ISSN: 2077-5504

Article publication date: 1 June 2009

Issue publication date: 1 June 2009

301
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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to gain a better insight into the reasons that make Qatar University students reluctant to attend professors’ office hours. Factor analysis was first conducted to reveal the components underlying this reluctance; Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was then employed to analyze the effects of gender, GPA, credit hours completed, year of enrollment, and college/major on those factors. Results indicated that professor's competence and demeanor, course characteristics, students' social skills, attitudes/motivation, time conflict/communication style, students' apprehension as well as their physical/emotional state were all related to their reluctance to attend office hours. Moreover the predictor variables of gender, GPA, and credit hours completed had significant effects on several of those seven reluctance factors.

Citation

Semmar, Y. (2009), "A Cross-Cultural, Exploratory Study of Students' Reluctance to Attend Office Hours", Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 18-29. https://doi.org/10.18538/lthe.v6.n1.02

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2009 Yassir Semmar

License

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode


Acknowledgements

Publisher's note: The Publisher would like to inform the reader that the article “A Cross-Cultural, Exploratory Study of Students' Reluctance to Attend Office Hours” has changed pagination. Previous pagination was pp. 1-12. The updated pagination for the article is now pp. 18-29. The Publisher apologises for any inconvenience caused.

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