Students' Perceived Understanding Mediates the Effects of Teacher Clarity and Nonverbal Immediacy on Learner Empowerment

This study examined students' perceived understanding as a mediator of the relationship between student perceptions of teacher clarity, nonverbal immediacy cues, and learner empowerment (i.e., meaningfulness, competence, and impact). Participants included 261 undergraduate students who completed survey instruments. Results of structural equation modeling indicated that students' perceptions of teacher clarity and nonverbal immediacy enhanced students' perceived understanding, which in turn positively predicted all three dimensions of learner empowerment. Bootstrapping analyses revealed significant indirect effects for student perceptions of teacher clarity and immediacy on the impact and competence dimensions of learner empowerment. Collectively, the results highlight perceived understanding as a key theoretical mechanism that further explains the associations among student perceptions of instructors' communication behaviors and learner empowerment.

[1]  Paul Schrodt,et al.  Students' Perceived Understanding: An Alternative Measure and its Associations with Perceived Teacher Confirmation, Verbal Aggressiveness, and Credibility , 2011 .

[2]  A. Mehrabian.  Some referents and measures of nonverbal behavior , 1968 .

[3]  Virginia P. Richmond,et al.  Power in the classroom VI: Verbal control strategies, nonverbal immediacy and affective learning , 1986 .

[4]  Jordan Soliz,et al.  Perceived Understanding as a Mediator of Perceived Teacher Confirmation and Students’ Ratings of Instruction , 2006 .

[5]  Joseph L. Chesebro,et al.  The development of the teacher clarity short inventory (TCSI) to measure clear teaching in the classroom , 1998 .

[6]  J. Mccroskey,et al.  Handbook of instructional communication : rhetorical and relational perspectives , 2006 .

[7]  D. D. Cahn.  Perceived understanding, supervisor‐subordinate communication, and organizational effectiveness , 1986 .

[8]  Jon A. Hess,et al.  Is teacher immediacy actually related to student cognitive learning? , 2001 .

[9]  D. D. Cahn.  Perceived Understanding and Interpersonal Relationships , 1990 .

[10]  T. Little,et al.  To Parcel or Not to Parcel: Exploring the Question, Weighing the Merits , 2002 .

[11]  Lawrence R. Wheeless,et al.  A meta‐analytical review of the relationship between teacher immediacy and student learning , 2004 .

[12]  J. F. Andersen.  Teacher Immediacy as a Predictor of Teaching Effectiveness , 1979 .

[13]  Stephen A. Sivo,et al.  A Structural Equation Modeling Evaluation of the General Model of Instructional Communication , 2009 .

[14]  Keith Weber,et al.  Student interest, empowerment and motivation , 2000 .

[15]  Paul L. Witt,et al.  Instructor Credibility as a Mediator of Instructor Communication and Students' Intent to Persist in College , 2011 .

[16]  Marian L. Houser,et al.  The development of a learner empowerment measure 1 , 1996 .

[17]  R. Kline.  Principles and practice of structural equation modeling, 2nd ed. , 2005 .

[18]  Virginia P. Richmond,et al.  The Relationship Between Selected Immediacy Behaviors and Cognitive Learning , 1987 .

[19]  Andrew J. Bush,et al.  An Empirical Investigation of Teacher Clarity , 1977 .

[20]  John J. Kennedy,et al.  Teacher Clarity and Its Relationship to Student Achievement and Satisfaction , 1985 .

[21]  M. Houser,et al.  The Role of Student Characteristics and Teacher Behaviors in Students’ Learner Empowerment , 2009 .

[22]  Marian L. Houser,et al.  Handbook of Instructional Communication: Rhetorical and Relational Perspectives , 2005 .

[23]  M. Browne,et al.  Alternative Ways of Assessing Model Fit , 1992 .

[24]  Anders McIlquham-Schmidt.  A meta-analytical review of the relationship between strategic planning and corporate performance , 2010 .

[25]  Rex B. Kline,et al.  Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling , 1998 .

[26]  P. Bentler,et al.  Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis : Conventional criteria versus new alternatives , 1999 .

[27]  A. Hayes.  Beyond Baron and Kenny: Statistical Mediation Analysis in the New Millennium , 2009 .

[28]  J. Mccroskey,et al.  Toward a general model of instructional communication , 2004 .

[29]  Scott A. Myers,et al.  Perceived understanding, interaction involvement, and college student outcomes , 2002 .

[30]  Scott A. Myers,et al.  The relationship between perceived instructor communicator style, argumentativeness, and verbal aggressiveness , 2000 .

[31]  Cheri J. Simonds,et al.  The Effects of Teacher Clarity, Nonverbal Immediacy, and Caring on Student Motivation, Affective and Cognitive Learning , 2007 .

[32]  B. Tabachnick,et al.  Using multivariate statistics, 5th ed. , 2007 .

[33]  Paul Schrodt.  Students' Appraisals of Instructors as a Function of Students' Perceptions of Instructors' Aggressive Communication , 2003 .

[34]  Paul Schrodt,et al.  Instructor Credibility as a Mediator of Instructors’ Prosocial Communication Behaviors and Students’ Learning Outcomes , 2009 .

[35]  James C. McCroskey,et al.  Communication correlates of teacher clarity in the college classroom , 1997 .