Feedback orientations refer to students' perceptions of instructional feedback utility, retention, sensitivity, and confidentiality. In this paper, we report three studies that investigated the relationships among feedback orientations and communication traits. Specifically, we examined the associations among communication adaptation traits (Study…

We examined the impact of instructor characteristics and student beliefs on students' decisions to enact instructional dissent using the Instructional Beliefs Model (IBM) as a framework. Students (N = 244) completed survey questionnaires assessing their perceptions of instructors' clarity, nonverbal immediacy, and affirming style, as well as their…

This article presents the Instructional Beliefs Model which forwards that teacher behaviors, student characteristics, and course-specific structural issues combine to influence students' instructional beliefs. Through these instructional beliefs, the first-order variables influence student learning outcomes. Three studies were conducted to…

Time delays in the treatment and transfer of trauma patients is a contributing factor responsible for many fatalities. Time delays are more characteristic of rural trauma systems due to factors such as greater distance, and delays in accident reporting. Efforts to reduce the trauma transfer process have resulted in many changes in protocol and use…

This study examined the relationships between instructors and their students, and between students, to determine their roles in building positive relationships and an overall positive classroom environment. Of particular interest was the examination of instructor rapport with students and rapport between students. Students (N = 232) reported on…

Four studies (N = 639) were conducted to develop and validate a global measure of student communication satisfaction with an instructor. In study one, participants were 155 students who reported on an instructor from their smallest class during the semester. Participants completed the Student Communication Satisfaction Scale (SCSS), the…

Nagging is a persuasive tactic yet to be fully explored in instructional communication. Nagging involves an exchange in which a student makes persistent requests of an instructor who fails to comply. The purpose of the study was to examine student nagging behavior and, specifically, to examine nagging as a potentially face threatening act as part…

This study investigated the link between college students' perceptions of instructors' aggressive communication and students' involvement in and out of the classroom. Participants were 218 students enrolled in introductory communication courses. Results indicated that students' reports of instructor argumentativeness were not positively associated…

In light of a new "student engagement" benchmark for teaching and institutional effectiveness in higher education, this study focused on the relationships between perceived instructor use of verbal approach and avoidance relational strategies and students' motives for communicating with their instructors. The data suggest that perceived instructor…

Explores how student motives to communicate with their instructors are influenced jointly by perceived instructor socio-communicative style and student socio-communicative orientation. Finds that female students communicate more for the functional motive than male students and male students communicate more for the relational and the sycophantic…

Identifies five underlying reasons students communicate with their instructors: relational, functional, excuse, participation, and sycophancy. Finds that students who communicate for all the interpersonal communication motives tend to communicate more with their instructors to relate and participate, while students who communicated for the motive…