Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Teacher effectiveness; Nonverbal communication in education; College teachers--Attitudes; Truthfulness and falsehood;

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of college instructors regarding the role of credibility and nonverbal immediacy in teacher’s effective behavior in the classroom. It seeks to understand instructors’ perceptions of the importance of nonverbal immediacy and its impact on their credibility. A qualitative method was used to examine the perceptions of instructors. A sample table and two graphs provide numeric indicators to illustrate the study’s results. Participants were selected based on a convenience sampling of twelve instructors from a communication department at a mid-sized Midwestern university. Although the sample is one of convenience, efforts were made to ensure that the twelve instructors chosen represented a variety of variables including sex, years teaching, and classes taught. This qualitative study explores how sex, experience, content area, and culture play significant roles in forming instructors’ perceptions of the importance of nonverbal immediacy and its impact on their credibility. As this study found, the role of sex comes first among other roles and explains the big differences between male and female instructors in perceiving teaching effectiveness through the role of credibility and nonverbal immediacy.

Year of Submission

2014

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Communication Studies

First Advisor

Melissa Beall

Date Original

2014

Object Description

1 PDF file (xii, 135 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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