Date of Graduation
1992
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
Recent research offers insight concerning the roles of teachers' verbal immediacy, nonverbal immediacy, and credibility in American classrooms, but little work has been done to test the universal effects of these constructs. The primary purpose of this research was to extend previous research by comparing in different cultural groups the relationships among students' perceptions of teachers' immediacy, credibility, and social style in relation to students' perceptions of their own motivation and learning. Relationships among students' perceptions of teachers' verbal immediacy, nonverbal immediacy, competence, character, assertiveness, and responsiveness and students' motivation, cognitive learning, affective learning, and behavioral learning as well as the mean levels for all variables were tested with correlational analyses in three college groups--American, Finnish, and Puerto Rican; in two high school groups--American and Hungarian; and in two junior high school groups--American and Hungarian. Results generally supported the pancultural value of teachers' communication in the classroom, although there were cultural group variations. For the American, Puerto Rican, Finnish, and Hungarian samples in aggregate form, students' perceptions of how their teachers communicate in the classroom do impact students' levels of motivation and learning. Additionally, for the samples in aggregate form and individually, students' perceptions of teachers' immediacy, credibility, and social style in the classroom are significant predictors of students' motivation, cognitive learning and learning loss, affective learning, and behavioral learning.
Recommended Citation
Thompson, Catherine Ann, "The relationships among teachers' immediacy behaviors, credibility, and social style and students' motivation and learning: Comparisons among cultures." (1992). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 9899.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/9899