Abstract
We examined the relationships between teachers’ communication styles and students’ perceptions of the classroom goal structure. Within the context of high school health classes focused on teaching about HIV/STD/pregnancy prevention, we surveyed 456 students about their teachers’ immediacy behaviors, efforts to make course content relevant, and their perceptions of the classroom goal structure. We found that the more teachers stressed the relevance of course material and used verbal and nonverbal immediacy behaviors, the more students perceived a mastery goal structure in their classrooms. Conversely, when teachers did not emphasize these immediacy behaviors, students were more likely to perceive an avoidance goal structure. Immediacy behaviors were not related to perceptions of an extrinsic goal structure. Our results suggest that teachers can help create a positive, mastery-oriented classroom by communicating with students in a way that demonstrates authentic care and concern for students’ learning. Implications for future research into cues students rely on when perceiving classroom goal structurers and implications for instruction are discussed.
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19 March 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09628-9
Notes
ANOVAs between nonverbal immediacy groups in the interaction terms were not significant, likely due to the low number of students who reported high nonverbal immediacy/high verbal immediacy (n = 6) and low nonverbal immediacy/high relevance (n = 2).
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The research reported in this article was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research (R01 NR08379-01).
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Iaconelli, R., Anderman, E.M. Classroom goal structures and communication style: the role of teacher immediacy and relevance-making in students’ perceptions of the classroom. Soc Psychol Educ 24, 37–58 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09609-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09609-y