Joan Gorham

The Relationship between Verbal Teacher Immediacy Behaviors and Student Learning.

Previous research has indicated that nonverbal teacher behaviors such as smiling, vocal expressiveness, movement about the classroom, and relaxed body position are salient low‐inference variables of a process which results in a product of increased cognitive and affective learning. This study identified a set of verbal teacher immediacy behaviors which similarly relate to increased student learning. Results indicated differentiated use of various types of verbal immediacy messages between small and larger classes, and that the impact of teacher immediacy behaviors (both verbal and nonverbal) on learning is coincidentally enhanced as class size increases. The study provides empirical definition of a specific set of low‐inference verbal variables which, in combination with previously identified nonverbal variables, clarify a single process‐product model for effective instructional interaction.

Effects of Immediacy on Recall of Information.

This study was designed to investigate the effects of immediacy on cognitive learning in an experimental situation which removed the effects of affect from the measurement of cognitive learning. The theoretical rationale examines immediacy behaviors as arousal stimuli which are associated with attentional focus, enhanced memory and recall. Results indicated that a combination of eye contact and physical immediacy accounted for 19.5% of the overall variance in recall, with equivalence and interaction of the two immediacy agents suggesting that other immediacy behaviors should produce potentially similar beneficial results.

A test‐retest analysis of student motivation, teacher immediacy, and perceived sources of motivation and demotivation in college classes

This study investigated relationships among, and changes in, student state motivation, teacher immediacy, and student‐perceived sources of motivation and demotivation across the course of a semester in college classes. Findings supported a causal relationship between teacher immediacy and state motivation and also replicated a pattern in which students perceive motivation as a personally‐owned state and demotivation as a teacher‐owned problem. Test‐retest changes in state motivation and teacher use of nonverbal immediacy behaviors were observed, with absence of negatives more influential than presence of positives in immediacy‐motivation relationships.

A comparison of teacher and student perceptions of immediacy and learning: Monitoring process and product

This study investigated the congruence between student and teacher perceptions of teacher immediacy and classroom learning outcomes. There was a high level of agreement in reports of immediacy and learning among students in intact classes. Substantial agreements between student and teacher perceptions of teacher use of immediacy behaviors, and of learning outcomes, were also found. Teacher affect toward teaching was not related to immediacy, and teacher experience was not related to monitoring ability. These results suggest that teachers are able to monitor both the process and product components of the instructional process‐product model suggested in previous research on immediacy, thus supporting the practical utility of the model.

Differences between Teaching Adults and Pre-Adults: A Closer Look.

There is a considerable body of prescriptive literature in adult education which defines a learner-centered, responsive approach for teaching adults. Little research, however, has attempted to describe the similarities and differences in the ways teachers actually teach adults and pre-adults. This study analyzed the reported and actual (observed) teaching practices of a population of university, community college, and public school teachers who taught in both adult and pre-adult programs. While teachers reported teaching differences that were very much in line with the prescriptive literature, there was, in actual practice, little evidence of the more student-centered approach with adults that was reported. Comparative analysis was used to examine factors which appeared to influence interaction patterns in adult education classrooms. The value of interaction analysis was supported in providing an objective description of teaching behavior from which grounded instructional theory and prescriptions for training adult education practitioners might subsequently be developed.

Affinity-Seeking Communication in Collegiate Female-Male Relationships.

The development of affinity is one of the most important functions of interpersonal communication between college females and males. This study examined differential preferences in use of and expectations of the use of affinity‐seeking strategies as a function of gender of participant. Results indicated distinct differences between self‐reported male and female strategies and further indicated that both males and females expected an individual of the opposite gender to mirror their own preferences when seeking affinity with them. Two alternative explanations for the apparent difficulty in defining affinity‐seeking relationships in cross‐gender dyads as complementary or symmetrical are explored, with a suggestion that the relative willingness of either interactant to respond to the others preferred strategies may be more important than characteristic gender behaviors in establishing affinity in such dyads.

A qualitative analysis of low‐inference student perceptions of teacher caring and non‐caring behaviors within the college classroom

This study investigated behaviors by teachers that are perceived by undergraduate students as conveying caring and non‐caring towards them. The results demonstrated that students do identify a fairly discrete set of teacher behaviors that they associate with communication of caring and that they do differentiate between teachers’ failing to communicate caring and their actively communicating non‐caring. Two‐thirds of both caring and non‐caring behaviors listed by students were task‐oriented; thus, students’ perceptions of teacher caring largely emphasized “nitty gritty”; rather than “warm and fuzzy”; elements of classroom interaction. Significant gender differences were found in identification of behaviors that communicate non‐caring, with females citing more direct verbal expressions of non‐caring, discouragement, and dislike and males focusing on teacher lack of concern for delivery and clarity in the classroom.

Fashion in the classroom III: Effects of instructor attire and immediacy in natural classroom interactions

This is the third of three studies using complementary designs to investigate the effects of teacher attire on student perceptions of instructors and instruction in contemporary college classrooms. In line with Studies One and Two, modest effects of attire on perceptions of extroversion and competence were found; however, previous conclusions that instructor attire has little meaningful, predictable effect on ratings of attributes related to either approachability or credibility were reinforced. Student judgements of such attributes were influenced far more by teacher use of immediacy behaviors than by attire. In particular, positive effects resulting from teachers’ choice of formal professional attire were not supported. This is the final study in a three‐part series designed to investigate the implications of instructor attire in the contemporary college classroom. Interest in this topic was sparked by collegial conversations regarding advice for new teaching assistants: What can they do to enhance cred...

Fashion in the Classroom II: Instructor Immediacy and Attire.

Results of a 2 (immediacy conditions) X 3 (attire conditions) experimental study indicated lesser effects of attire on person perceptions when studied in a live interaction context as opposed to responses to photographs, as has been typical in previous studies. Influence of attire was largely limited to ratings of instructor extroversion, while immediacy influenced perceptions of extroversion, composure, character, competence, homophily, and learning. There was no statistically significant interaction between attire and immediacy; i.e., there was no indication that strategic choice of attire bolsters student ratings of non‐immediate instructors, or that “non professional” attire hurts judgements of immediate instructors.

Sex in primetime television: An analysis of content trends, context categories, and sampling considerations

This study provides a replication and extension of previous content analyses of sex in primetime television, following a five‐year period of increased consumer activism directed through advertiser influence on programming content. It also addressed the issue of sample size in analyses designed to track such trends. Results indicated distinct differences from trends reported in previous studies, with a substantial decrease in the quantity as well as changes in the quality of sexual behavior and references between the 1988–89 and 1993–94 television seasons. Although a minimum of one intact or constructed week of programming has been considered essential for such studies, comparative analyses of full and half‐sample data provided evidence that overall trends can be accurately mapped using a reasonably selected stratified subsample of a constructed week of programming.