Paul L. Witt

The Role of Teacher Immediacy as a Motivational Factor in Student Learning: Using Meta-Analysis to Test a Causal Model

This report uses meta-analysis to derive correlations between the variables of teacher immediacy, cognitive learning, and affective learning. A model was constructed such that the perception of teacher immediacy, a behavior, generates an intermediate outcome of affect, a motivation, which in turn increases cognitive learning outcome. The data across all the included investigations are consistent with that model. The results suggest that high levels of teacher immediacy function as a means of increasing the motivation of a student to learn, and that such motivation increases the cognitive mastery of material.

A Meta-Analytical Review of Family Communication Patterns and their Associations with Information Processing, Behavioral, and Psychosocial Outcomes

This meta-analysis reviews the findings of 56 studies (n=19,745) examining the associations among family communication patterns (i.e., conversation and conformity orientations) and information-processing, behavioral, and psychosocial outcomes. When both conversation and conformity orientations are considered collectively, the cumulative evidence indicates a small, but meaningful relationship between family communication patterns and overall outcomes (r=.285). Similar overall effect sizes were observed for conversation (r=.262) and conformity orientations (r=.253), though the average effect size for conversation orientation and psychosocial outcomes (r=.460) was greater in magnitude than those obtained for information processing (r=.238) or behavioral outcomes (r=.276). Slightly larger effect sizes were observed when researchers used the Revised Family Communication Patterns scale (r=.332) as compared with the Family Communication Patterns scale (r=.261), though this difference in magnitude was statistically non-significant. Collectively, the results suggest that family communication patterns have a meaningful association with a variety of cognitive activities and relational behaviors, as well as individual well-being.

An experimental study of teachers’ verbal and nonverbal immediacy and students’ affective and cognitive learning

Previous research involving few experiments generally claims that higher nonverbal and verbal immediacy by teachers increases students’ affective and cognitive learning. In this study, experimental manipulation of combinations of nonverbal and verbal immediacy allowed us to more precisely test these causal links in relation to recall, learning loss, and affective learning. Obtained effects strengthened previous research associating teacher nonverbal immediacy with enhanced cognitive and affective learning outcomes. However, higher verbal immediacy in the experimental manipulations, when combined with higher and lower nonverbal immediacy, was not observed to produce greater cognitive learning. Correlations among recall, learning loss, and affective learning measures were significant, but the cognitive measures were not strongly associated.

A Meta-Analytical Review of Teacher Credibility and its Associations with Teacher Behaviors and Student Outcomes

This meta-analysis reviews the findings of 51 studies (N = 14,378) examining the associations among teacher credibility, teacher behaviors, and student outcomes. When all three dimensions of credibility are considered collectively (i.e., competence, trustworthiness, and caring), the cumulative evidence indicates a moderate, meaningful relationship between teacher credibility and overall outcomes (r=.448). Similar overall effect sizes were observed for competence (r=.481), trustworthiness (r=.477), and caring (r=.554), though the overall effect size for caring was greater in magnitude than that obtained for credibility measured as a single factor (r=.294). On average, higher correlations were observed when researchers measured all three dimensions of credibility (r=.518) than when they only measured competence and character (r=.256). Collectively, the results highlight the unique contributions of perceived caring to the teacher credibility construct, as well as the meaningful role that teacher credibility plays in facilitating student learning.

Students’ Attributions of Instructor Credibility as a Function of Students’ Expectations of Instructional Technology Use and Nonverbal Immediacy This paper was presented to the Instructional Development Division at the National Communication Association's annual convention in Boston, MA.

This study examined the interaction effect of nonverbal immediacy and expected instructional technology use on students’ initial reports of instructor credibility. Participants included 549 college students who were randomly assigned to one of eight scenarios depicting first-day class sessions across four levels of technology use and two levels of nonverbal immediacy. A 4×2 factorial MANOVA revealed a significant multivariate interaction effect for instructor credibility, as well as significant multivariate main effects for both expected technology use and nonverbal immediacy. Univariate procedures revealed that the interaction effect and both main effects were significant for all three dimensions of instructor credibility. Finally, planned cell comparisons revealed different trends among dimensions of credibility for highly immediate vs. nonimmediate instructors.

Instructional Feedback I: The Interaction of Facework and Immediacy on Students' Perceptions of Instructor Credibility

Instructors routinely provide feedback for students concerning the work the students produce as part of a classroom course. Although such information is required of instructors and expected by students, the communication of feedback creates a potentially face-threatening interaction in which the students self-esteem may be diminished and/or the instructor–student relationship may be strained. This study investigated a video instructors attempts to mitigate such face threats by using sensitive verbal strategies combined with nonverbal immediacy cues. A 2 x 2 experimental design allowed manipulation of these two variables in higher and lower combinations and subsequent detection of a significant interaction effect between them. In the presence of higher face-threat mitigation cues and higher nonverbal immediacy cues, students attributed greater credibility to the video instructor and evaluated the instructor more highly. These findings are interpreted in light of approach-avoidance theory, which posits that people draw near to others whom they like and avoid those they dislike. Implications for classroom instructors are discussed.

Learner Empowerment and Teacher Evaluations as Functions of Teacher Power Use in the College Classroom.

This study tested two theoretical models of learner empowerment as a potential mediator of teacher power use and students’ ratings of instruction. Participants included 1,416 undergraduate students from four different institutions in the United States. Results of structural equation modeling provided more support for the partial mediation model than for the full mediation model, though in the final structural model, learner empowerment failed to mediate the influence of teacher power use on students’ ratings of instruction. Instead, referent, reward, and legitimate power accounted for 66% of the variance in learner empowerment, while referent, expert, and coercive power accounted for 80% of the variance in teacher evaluations. Referent power emerged as the only form of power that predicted both empowerment and evaluations.

Instructor Credibility as a Mediator of Instructors’ Prosocial Communication Behaviors and Students’ Learning Outcomes

This study tested two models of instructor credibility as a potential mediator of instructors’ prosocial communication behaviors (e.g., confirmation, clarity, and nonverbal immediacy) and students’ learning outcomes. Participants included 1,416 undergraduate students from four different institutions across the United States. Results of structural equation modeling provided greater support for the partial mediation model, whereby credibility partially mediated the effects of teacher confirmation and clarity on learning outcomes, though it fully mediated the effects of nonverbal immediacy. When combined, students’ perceptions of all three prosocial behaviors accounted for 66% and 57% of the variance in credibility and learning outcomes, respectively. Among the more important implications of this research is the finding that confirming behaviors and clarity have both direct and indirect effects on student learning.

Teacher Immediacy, Confidence Testing, and the Measurement of Cognitive Learning

There is much disagreement among instructional communication scholars concerning the appropriate means to measure cognitive learning. Significant differences have emerged between studies that rely on perceptual versus performance measures of learning and the issue has been the subject of much recent debate in research on teacher immediacy. The present study sought to compare instruments commonly used to assess perceived learning (learning loss measure) and performed learning (course grades) with an additional approach to cognitive learning assessment known as confidence testing. All of these measures were compared with student perceptions of teacher immediacy. Results indicate that confidence testing scores are significantly associated with both course grades and perceived learning. Implications for research involving cognitive learning are discussed.

Reconsidering the Measurement of Teacher Power Use in the College Classroom.

Three studies were conducted to (a) re-examine the internal properties of Roachs Power Base Measure (PBM), (b) test the PBM for measurement invariance across different samples, and (c) develop an alternative measure of observable teacher behaviors that communicate power in the classroom. Results of Studies 1 and 2 provide some support for the PBM, as confirmatory factor analyses supported the hypothesized item loadings for each dimension and demonstrated strong metric invariance. Aggregate scores for each dimension of the PBM, however, produced poor model fit when hypothesized to represent the latent construct of teacher power. Results of Study 3 yielded a new measure of teacher power, the Teacher Power Use Scale. Validity estimates for both measures are offered, and theoretical implications are discussed.