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The purpose of this study was to investigate college teachers' experiences of relational turning points with their students, as well as how these turning point events may affect teacher outcomes. Teachers who were able to identify a relational turning point event with a student (n=306, 78.5% of the overall sample) completed open- and closed-ended questions about the event. Analysis of participants' responses yielded four distinct supracategories of relational turning point events, comprised of consultation, transgression, intimation, and realization of student potential or success. Teachers who reported intimation and realization of student potential or success turning point events also indicated increased liking for students, teacher-student interpersonal relationships, teacher self-efficacy, teacher motivation, and teacher job satisfaction. Teachers who reported transgression turning points indicated decreased liking for students, teacher motivation, and teacher job satisfaction. Teachers who reported consultation turning point events indicated either increased or decreased teacher outcomes depending on the nature of the event. At the end of the article, readers are invited to engage in reflective practice and move to action regarding the findings of this study. (Contains 1 note and 5 tables.)

The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher-student interaction using a relational frame (i.e., describing the student-teacher dynamic as inherently relational). Specifically, we focus on turning points and their potential outcomes in student-teacher relationships. Students who were able to identify a relational turning point event with a college teacher (n = 394) completed open- and closed-ended survey questions about the event, its outcomes, and their learning and motivation. Analysis of participants' responses yielded six meta-level categories of turning point events, most of which were positively valenced: instrumental, personal, rhetorical, ridicule/discipline, locational, and other person. Our analysis also yielded 11 categories of outcomes of relational turning point events. Two of these--changes in willingness to approach the teacher/seek help and changes in perceptions of their relationship with the teacher--were common to personal turning point events. Students who reported positive instrumental, personal, and locational turning point events also reported increased cognitive learning, affective learning, and student motivation following the turning points. Further, students who reported a ridicule/discipline turning point event, the one event type commonly rated negatively, reported decreased cognitive learning, affective learning, and student motivation. (Contains 5 tables.)

Students' concealed carry of guns is now legally allowed at many instructors' places of employment, representing an influential and understudied message. Therefore, using Emotional Response Theory and the chilling effect, the purpose of this study was to examine how college instructors perceived the legal presence of guns on campus influenced their instructional communication. Utilizing qualitative methods, interviews highlighted how instructors viewed the interaction of power, their role as an instructor, communication with students, and the dynamic created by campus carry. For participants, campus carry impacted their communication in one of three ways: by causing them to reframe, refocus, or resign in their communication with students. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guided by assumptions from the cognitive-affective theory of learning with media, we conducted a teaching experiment to corroborate past correlational research that suggested instructor misbehaviors, in the form of antagonism toward students, impede students’ cognitive learning. Participants were 472 undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to view a recorded teaching condition of a standard lecture on persuasion heuristics (control), or the same lecture content with instructor antagonism manipulated (treatment). Results revealed that students exposed to the treatment lecture with antagonism had lower affect for the course and instructor. Moreover, because they had lower affect for the material, antagonized students scored worse on a test of their learning (mediation) compared with students in the standard lecture. Students who possessed a mastery orientation toward learning, and independently, who were effort-regulated, scored even lower on their tests of learning because antagonistic instruction caused a greater reduction in their affect toward the material being taught (moderated mediation). Overall, results suggested that instructor misbehaviors do cause slight learning deficits for students, especially for students who value their learning opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the impacts of communication activism pedagogy on student-teacher dynamics. Topics discussed include principles that guides the longitudinal studies including flexibility, openness to multiple methodologies, and collaboration; importance of understanding how the democratic habits enact and perform long after the conclusion of a class; and need of creating sustainable activism in classrooms.

In the article, the author discusses the role of communication in education in response to an essay of Jo Sprague on the issue. Other topics include the effect/s of instructor-student relationships on student learning, the interplay of factors like race, gender, and sexual orientation in education, and the relationship among academic freedom, politics, and ideological diversity.

An essay is presented on the influence of communication within the educational process of classroom disciplines and contexts. It highlights the domains in the instructional setting which include teacher-student relationship, social identity engagement and ideology in the classroom. It stresses the conceptual landscape for student's engagement in social interactions about identity differences.

This study sought to investigate whether there was any relationship between teacher misbehaviors and student interest and engagement. Consistent with Emotional Response Theory and models for how teacher behavior impacts student interest and engagement, teacher misbehaviors were strongly correlated with student interest and weakly correlated with student engagement. Teacher incompetence predicted the most variance in student interest, followed by indolence and offensiveness. There was a difference in teacher misbehaviors between the two universities where this study was conducted, but not in student interest or engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When communication technologies are used by individuals to intentionally threaten or harm others, the potential for anyone to become a target of cyberbullying is very real. Therefore, when it comes to instructor–student interactions, even the most competent or award-winning instructors are not immune from cyberbullying if disgruntled students perceive problematic or unfair classroom behaviors by their instructors. This essay examines students' cyberbullying of instructors in order to increase our understanding of this very important, but understudied topic. Specifically, this essay examines what is known about the cyberbullying of instructors, considers how cyberbullying affects instructors and their respective institutions, and provides an agenda for ways instructional communication scholars can contribute to the scholarship of this very important topic. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the present study, I explored student–teacher interaction, student–teacher relationship formation and development, and the ways in which student–teacher interaction and relationships facilitated support and persistence for first-generation (FG) students during the transition to college. Using transition theory as a sensitizing framework, I took an interpretive communication-centered approach to identify the teacher messages that FG students perceived to be turning points in their pedagogical and interpersonal relationships with their teachers. Thirty participants identified 105 turning points that they received from college teachers during their transition to college. These turning points were organized into seven turning-point categories and three turning-point subcategories. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study, we used the broaden-and-build theory and emotional response theory as the framework to examine the effects of instructors' positive emotions on student engagement and critical thinking in U.S. and Chinese classrooms, as well as the mediating role of students' positive emotions in their relationships. MANOVA results revealed no significant cultural differences in student reports of their instructors' and their own positive emotions across the two cultures, but instructors from both cultures displayed more positive emotions than what students felt or experienced in the classroom. Hierarchical regression analyses results also showed that instructors' positive emotions had positive effects on student behavioral and cognitive engagement and critical thinking in both cultures, but the effects were largely mediated by students' positive emotions. Consequently, this study highlights the importance of instructors' and students' positive emotions in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using Petronio's communication privacy management theory, this study tested the degree to which content relevance and students' comfort with instructor disclosures moderated the association between instructor disclosures (i.e., frequency and appropriateness) and credibility (i.e., competence, trustworthiness, and goodwill) in the college classroom. Participants included 362 undergraduate students from a private university in the Southwest. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that content relevance moderates the positive association between disclosure appropriateness and all three dimensions of credibility, although this interaction and its effect on instructor goodwill depended upon the frequency of instructor disclosures as well. Likewise, students' comfort with instructor disclosures moderated the positive effects of disclosure appropriateness on perceptions of instructor competence and trustworthiness, but not on goodwill. Among the more important implications of this study is the finding that students' comfort with instructor disclosures moderates the effects of disclosure frequency and appropriateness on perceptions of instructor competence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Students and instructors acknowledge the importance of the instructor–student relationship in the classroom. Despite the importance of the instructor–student interpersonal relationship, there can also be unexpected or undesirable outcomes associated with relational teaching. Using the theoretical framework of leader–member exchange, we explored relational teaching messages to understand how they may relate positively or negatively to student perceptions of classroom justice. Participants (N = 124) completed measures about relational communication strategies (i.e., rapport, confirmation, and affinity-seeking) and classroom justice (i.e., procedural, interactional, and distributive). Results indicate the enjoyable interaction dimension of rapport positively predicted perceptions of all three types of justice. The response to questions dimension of confirmation positively predicted perceptions of procedural and interactional justice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the article, the author discusses prosocial advocacy communication and mentoring in higher education in the U.S. Topics include the importance of mentoring on the confidence, success and professional identity of a young scholar, the nature of communication in mentoring relationships, and the institutional approaches to mentoring to improve the experiences of students of color (SOC) and to build a pipeline of prospective faculty of color (FOC).

The article discusses the importance of faculty-student mentoring in graduate programs and institutions to eliminate racism in higher education in the U.S. Also cited are the racial disparities in graduate programs across the U.S. based on data of the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, the low number of faculty of color (FOC) in academia, and the hindrances in the academic and psychosocial success of graduate students of color (SOC).

The goals-plans-actions model and the theory of planned behavior were used to predict what lead to students having a conversation about a disappointing grade with a faculty member. Participants (N=130) completed two surveys. In the first survey, participants completed measures of primary and secondary goals, planning, decision to engage, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intentions. In the second survey, administered two to four weeks after the first, participants completed measures of action or behavior. Structural equation modeling was used to complete the data analysis. The results indicated support for both theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationships between instructors and their students, and between students, to determine their roles in building positive relationships and an overall positive classroom environment. Of particular interest was the examination of instructor rapport with students and rapport between students. Students (N=232) reported on their perceptions of interpersonal relationships in the classroom and on their perceived participation and learning. Results indicate that perceived rapport with instructors and classmates is related to perceptions of classroom connectedness. Instructor rapport, student rapport, and classroom connectedness enhanced student participation. Only instructor rapport consistently predicted participation, affective learning, and cognitive learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the rapport of millennial students with instructors and influence of helicopter parents. It explores the millennial-parent relationship and impact of instructor-student rapport. The author stated that adapting instructional research to reflect the characteristics and values of the generation will help students meet their great potential.

This investigation examined how out-of-class support (OCS) affects student satisfaction and motivation to learn. Students (N =594) were randomly assigned to experimental conditions manipulating a highly supportive, moderately supportive, or nonsupportive teacher following a hypothetically stressful situation. Significant and meaningful main effects of OCS for student satisfaction and motivation were obtained, with students reporting greatest satisfaction and motivation to learn with highly supportive teachers, and less satisfaction and motivation with moderately and nonsupportive teachers. Implications for the teacher-student relationship are examined along with potential risks associated with the use of OCS communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined (1) whether or not college students in actual classrooms used resistance strategies similar to those found in earlier hypothetical-anchored research; (2) the influence of teacher immediacy on student's differential use of those resistance strategies; and (3) the relationship among students' willingness to comply, teachers' nonverbal immediacy, and students' compliance resistance behaviors with perceived cognitive and affective learning. Based on both qualitative and quantitative data, college students (N=564) reported limited resistance attempts and strategies. They also reported greater willingness to comply with immediate as opposed to nonimmediate teachers, and their willingness to comply was related to cognitive and affective learning. Findings in this study suggest that teachers' nonverbal immediacy is fundamental to classroom management and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three studies were conducted to (a) re-examine the internal properties of Roach's 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated the relationships between college students’ perceptions of instructor credibility (competence, character, and caring) and their perceptions of classroom justice (distributive, procedural, and interactional justice). Results indicate that perceptions of instructor credibility positively predicted perceptions of classroom justice. Specifically, instructor competence predicted interactional justice; instructor caring predicted procedural and interactional justice; and instructor character predicted distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. In short, instructor credibility was most strongly related to interactional (versus distributive and procedural) justice and instructor character (versus competence or caring) was the most consistent predictor of classroom justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers suggest that psycho-social mentoring may represent a way for instructors to provide emotional support and personal insight to students. Given the nationwide rise in academic stress among university students, the present study examines the kinds of negative emotions associated with failing an exam and how such emotions are linked to healthy and unhealthy forms of coping. In addition, the present study compares the links between emotion and coping across two national culture groups, Mainland Chinese and U.S., European Americans. This is done in an effort to aid instructors in their efforts to mentor students in the aftermath of academic failure. Results suggest both cross-cultural differences and similarities in emotional experience and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how an instructor's use of relational messages, specifically nonverbal immediacy behaviors, may neutralize how students interpret instructor course workload demands and student expectations for instructor availability. It was hypothesized that instructor immediacy would temper instructor course workload demands that violated student expectations in a way that preserved student affect for the instructor (H1), student compliance with instructor course workload demands (H2), and student tolerance for instructor unavailability (H3). The first hypothesis was supported; however, the second and third hypotheses were not supported. The data suggest that instructor course workload demands negatively impacted student compliance (H2) and neither instructor immediacy nor workload demands impacted student tolerance for instructor unavailability in a meaningful manner (H3). Implication and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grounded in attribution theory, this investigation examined explanations students provide when college teachers misbehave, and the influence of perceived teacher immediacy shaping those interpretations. Across two different samples, college students responded to questionnaires assessing perceptions of their teachers' immediacy, teacher misbehaviors, and attributions of misbehavior consistency and causality. Results of both qualitative and quantitative data analyses revealed that students recognize teacher misbehaviors and apply an interpretive framework in which they view the teacher, not external factors or themselves, as the primary cause of teacher misbehaviors. Even those teachers who employ immediacy behaviors are not immune to students' tendency to attribute teacher-internal causality to teacher misbehaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of a new "student engagement" benchmark for teaching and institutional effectiveness in higher education, this study focused on the relationships between perceived instructor use of verbal approach and avoidance relational strategies and students' motives for communicating with their instructors. The data suggest that perceived instructor use of verbal approach relational strategies positively influences students' motivation to engage with their instructors for relational, participatory, excuse-making, and sycophantic reasons. Perceived instructor use of verbal avoidance relational strategies, however, was uncorrelated with students' motives to communicate. The results also failed to confirm previous findings that the functional motive to communicate is more related to task purposes than to relational purposes. Findings of this study do imply that student engagement can be enhanced by instructors more emphatically expressing messages of inclusion, appreciation, willingness to communicate, and the like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the role that nonverbal immediacy plays in clear teaching, as well as the effects clear and immediate teaching have on student learning, state receiver apprehension, and affect. The results indicate that clarity, as defined in this study, is an important factor in student learning, receiver apprehension, and affect. Students who were taught by a clear teacher learned more than those who were taught by an unclear teacher, experienced less state receiver apprehension, and had more positive affect for the instructor and the course material. Nonverbal immediacy did not have a significant effect on learning, but did increase students' affect for the instructor and the course material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined student perceptions of instructor humor orientation, assertiveness, and responsiveness as antecedents of out-of-class communication (OCC) between instructors and students. Perceptions of instructor humor orientation were positively associated with the frequency of formal as well as informal OCC, student satisfaction with OCC, and three topics of student-instructor conversation. Perceptions of instructor responsiveness, but not assertiveness, were positively associated with frequency of informal OCC and with satisfaction with OCC. Overall, humor orientation was superior as a predictor of formal and informal OCC frequency, while instructor responsiveness best predicted student satisfaction with OCC. Findings imply that instructors can increase the frequency of OCC with their students, especially informal OCC, by exhibiting humorous dispositions. By using a responsive manner, instructor can promote student satisfaction with OCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces articles in the January 2003 issue of the journal 'Communication Education.' Focus on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Communication (SOTL/C); Negotiation of diverse identities in educational settings; Mentor-mentee relationship in higher education.

Amidst few empirical studies of the effects of high stakes testing on classroom talk, this study concretely illustrates erosion of inclusive teacher-student interaction. Using discourse analysis, it compares K-12 classroom instructional practices before and after the imposition of standardized testing and illuminates the negative transformation of five inclusionary discursive practices. Before testing mandates: 1) diversity was regarded as a resource for opportunities to learn something valuable; 2) standards for academic achievement provided a wide range of possible performances; 3) teachers and students were flexible in their stances toward what constituted academic performance; 4) students' constructed student "selves" were part of a dialogue about academic expectations; and 5) students' personal texts were a legitimate part of the curriculum. In test-impacted classrooms, in contrast, meanings for diversity, performance standards, and performance stances contracted, and talk about students' selves and their personal texts narrowed. In an illustrative case, an "at risk" student's effort to express his point is overridden by his teacher's well-meaning urgency to clean up his prose to meet testing' expectations for literate language. The discourse analytic approach informing this research can also inform teacher education and professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the role of empowerment in the communicative process among teachers and students at a Midwestern Montessori school. Pattern in the practice of empowerment in the organizational context; Assumption of the Montessori method on empowerment; Focus on the community-oriented nature of the Montessori rules.

Examines the influence of perceived instructor socio-communicative style and student socio-communicative orientation on the relationship between students and their instructors in Glendale, Arizona. Relationship between relational and sycophantic motives; Comparison between male and female students; Motives of male students in communicating.

Examines the critical interactions between faculty and students having difficulties in managing school and family responsibilities in the U.S. Use of survey and critical interaction methods in data collection; Role of child care concerns in the negotiations with faculty members; Limitations in the options perceived by the students.

Examines the relationship between nonverbal and verbal immediacy by teachers and students' affective and cognitive learning. Correlation among recall, learning loss and affective learning; Comparison between higher verbal immediacy and lower verbal immediacy on produced higher affect.

Focuses on the relationship between student predispositions and expectations for instructor communication behavior. Influence of expectations for instructor communication behavior on student learning/grade orientation; Role of student comprehension apprehension on expectation for teacher communication behaviors; Relation of student humor orientation on expectation for teacher humor use.

Explores the relationships among teacher characteristics and perceived caring. Description of characteristics or behaviors that make teachers effective; Students' perception of their teachers' caring; Prediction of teacher caring.

Examines the relationships among receiver apprehension, teacher clarity, and teacher immediacy in the instructional context. Relationships between state receiver apprehension and student motivation, affect, and cognitive learning; Association of state receiver apprehension to negative instructional outcomes.

Explores the relationship between touch during student-professor interactions and students' evaluations of the professor and the interaction. Significant influence of student sex, professor reward value, and location of touch on students' evaluations of professors and interactions with professors.

Addresses patterns and influence of student perceptions of instructor power use, affinity-seeking, and nonverbal immediacy in American and in German classrooms. Tendency of American instructors to be higher in power use, affinity-seeking, and nonverbal immediacy than German instructors; American students' higher perceptions of cognitive learning.

Focuses on the interpersonal relationship involved in teacher-student relationship. Students' perceptions of the importance of communications skills and immediacy behaviors; Differences in male-female students' perceptions; Factors considered most important to effective teaching.

Examines perceived student nonverbal immediacy behaviors in the classroom with regard to their potential relationship with teachers. Comparison between the attitude of teachers who perceive and those who do not perceive their students to be more nonverbally immediate with them; Role of nonverbal immediacy in the classroom; Communication in the classroom.

Examines the relationship between interactive television instructors' perception of students' nonverbal responsiveness and the influence of these perceptions on distance teaching. Teacher-student interpersonal relations; Face-to-face instruction; Reception of visual and audible cues.

Examines the relationships of teacher immediacy behaviors and verbal aggression with student perceptions on homophily and interpersonal attractiveness. Relationship between immediate behaviors with verbally aggressive behaviors; Association of immediacy to both dimensions of homophily; Impact of immediacy to the effectiveness of teachers.

Examines students' motives for communicating in the classroom. Relational, functional, excuse, participation, and sycophancy as the five primary reasons for communicating with instructors; Use of a canonical correlation analysis to examine the relationship between the students' reasons for communicating and their trait interpersonal communication motives.

Investigates the relationship between immediacy, trust, student motivation and student-faculty out-of-class communication (OCC). Nature of OCC in terms of frequency, length, content and student satisfaction; Student perceptions of instructor verbal and nonverbal immediacy.

Explores four variables which affect students' perceived learning and willingness to talk in class. Instructor verbal immediacy; Instructor nonverbal immediacy; Instructor gender; Student gender.

Discusses how the student perceptions of their teachers' credibility on the dimensions of competence, trustworthiness, and caring (goodwill) is impacted by the teacher immediacy and teacher misbehavior. Reference to the positive impact credibility has on learning; What probing of the interaction results suggested; Definition of immediacy.