Description
Research in the last thirty years has revealed immediacy as a leading variable in successful teacher-student relationships, teaching effectiveness, and student achievement. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to extend what is known about classroom immediacy by examining teachers' perceptions of their own immediacy, as well as their perceptions of classroom immediacy and achievement. Due to the reciprocal nature of communication, a primary focus of the current study was to examine possible synergistic outcomes of teacher-student interactions involving immediate behaviors. Furthermore, this study examine the congruency between perceptual and performance measures of student cognitive learning. Teachers' perceptions of class achievement were assessed as a means of measuring perceived cognitive learning. Additionally, class midterm scores were assessed as a means of establishing student cognitive learning and comparability with perceptual measures of learning. Results demonstrated a significant relationship between teacher immediacy and class midterm scores. Teacher immediacy also revealed a significant relationship with teachers' motivation and affect for the class. Additionally, the interactive product of teacher and student immediacy was found to be correlated with both perceptual and performance measures of student cognitive learning. Lastly, results failed to find a significant relationship between teacher immediacy and perceptions of classroom achievement. Furthermore, the current study suggests that perceptual and performance measures of student learning do not demonstrate significant comparability. Additional results and implications are discussed, along with suggestions for future research.
