The Relationship Between Liberal Arts Education Satisfaction and Core Competency Improvement: The Mediating Effect of Academic Challenge and the Moderated Mediation Effect of Professor-Student Interaction

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of academic challenge in the relationship between liberal arts education satisfaction and core competency improvement, and to verify the moderated mediating effect of professor-student interaction on the influence of liberal arts education satisfaction on academic challenge. For this purpose, data from the 2022 National Assessment of Student Engagement in Learning (NASEL), conducted by the Korean Educational Development Institute, were utilized. The study sample consisted of 95 four-year universities (45,424 students). After excluding missing cases, and a total of 36,320 students were analyzed. SPSS Macro PROCESS (Model 7) was used for analysis. The results showed the following: First, liberal arts education satisfaction had a significant positive relationship with academic challenge, core competency improvement, and professor-student interaction; academic challenge had a significant positive relationship with core competency improvement and professor-student interaction; and core competency improvement was significantly positively related to professor-student interaction. Second, academic challenge mediated the relationship between liberal arts education satisfaction and core competency improvement. Third, the moderated mediating effect of professor-student interaction was confirmed in the relationship between liberal arts education satisfaction and academic challenge, indicating that the effect size varied depending on the level of professor-student interaction. Based on these results, the educational implications of liberal arts education satisfaction and strategies for enhancing core competencies were discussed.