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PURPOSE AND BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to obtain student feedback pertaining to the instructor's teaching and the impact the instructor had on the student's learning experience. Students in a graduate-level course, Counseling Diverse Populations, were participants in the study. Brookfield's (1995) Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ) was used to gather data.
Stephen Brookfield (2006) stated that no one word or phrase can adequately describe what it feels like to teach. He described the profession of teaching as passionate, fearful, exhilarating, lonely, victorious, and above all, as being full of surprise and ambiguity. Understanding classroom dynamics and the interaction between professor and students is both fascinating and perplexing as professors strive to improve their craft. More specifically, working with graduate students adds an extra dimension, namely that of insuring that academic rigor and reflective, participative interaction are given equal representation. Furthermore, classes that focus on topical, yet potentially sensitive issues, such as cultural diversity, can alienate the students and the well-intentioned college professor even more.
Several researchers (Heppner & O'Brien, 1994; Kiselica, Maben, & Locke, 1999; Locke & Kiselica, 1999) have investigated the efficacy of teaching counseling students about cultural, ethnic, and racial issues. Heppner and O'Brien (1994) developed a questionnaire to examine students' perceptions of what helped or hindered students enrolled in a multicultural counseling course. Helpful information concerning pedagogy was obtained from their research. Heppner and O'Brien (1994) also noted that students reported an attirudinal or cognitive change toward themselves or others as the students considered, some for the first time, their own ethnicity and culture.
In a review of the literature concerning multicultural education and diversity appreciation training, Keselica, Maben, and Locke (1999) concluded that counseling students and professionals who received multicultural training consistently perceived themselves to have experienced positive changes in their biases about people different from themselves. However, the researchers also concluded that, because of the inconsistent use of instruments and research design throughout the literature, the extent and specifics of the reported changed biases cannot be determined. More importantly, Keselica, Maben, and Locke's (1999) review (which included Heppner and O'Brien, 1994) indicated that very little attention has been given to the impact of the instructor on the students and the classroom dynamics.
Furthermore, Locke and Kiselica (1999)...
