Student Perceptions of Helpfulness in Classroom Speech Criticism.

The purposes of this study were to determine what specific types of criticism students perceive as being most helpful, whether student perceptions of helpfulness in different types of criticism vary according to individual levels of speech anxiety or exhibitionism, and whether student perceptions of helpfulness in different types of criticism vary according to study and instructor sex differences. The subjects were 309 college students enrolled in a basic speech communication course. Ten of the classes were taught by male instructors, ten by female instructors. The subjects were administered a revised version of the Personal Report of Confidence as a Speaker. The results indicated that students did not have a general preference for criticism of delivery or content. They apparently felt that both types of criticism were equally important. Also, student preferences indicated that instructors should include both positive and negative comments in their criticism. (WR)