Relationships between teacher nonverbal immediacy, student emotional response, and perceived student learning

The purpose of this study was to use emotional response theory as a way to explain the relationships between students’ perceptions of teacher immediacy behaviors and their cognitive and affective learning. Emotional response was conceptualized and measured using a three dimensional approach: pleasure, arousal, and dominance (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974; Russell & Barrett, 1999). It was hypothesized that students who experience an increase in pleasure, arousal, and dominance would self‐report increased levels of affective and cognitive learning. To support the claim that emotional response may explain the immediacy effect, it was also hypothesized that students’ pleasure, arousal, and dominance would account for more of the unique variance in perceived learning than teacher nonverbal immediacy behaviors. The first hypothesis was supported and the second hypothesis was partially supported.

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