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Abstract
This study explored the associations among perceived teacher confirmation behaviors (i.e., demonstrating interest, responding to questions, and teaching style) and student perceptions of teacher power use (i.e., coercive, reward, expert, legitimate, and referent power). Participants included 656 students from two Midwestern universities. Results revealed that perceived teacher confirmation accounts for 20% of the variance in student perceptions of teacher power. Further, perceived teacher confirmation behaviors were more closely associated with student perceptions of teacher pro-social power use than with anti-social power use. Specifically, post hoc analyses revealed that perceived confirmation behaviors are more closely associated with student ratings of expert and reward power than ratings of referent and coercive power.
Notes
1. In her initial development of the TCS, Ellis (2000) identified four, not three, dimensions of perceived teacher confirmation, with the fourth being absence of disconfirmation. In a follow-up study, however, the fourth dimension failed to cross-validate to a second sample of students and was dropped from further analysis. Recently, Ellis (2004) added the fourth dimension back to the TCS, providing little justification for doing so. We fail to see how the absence of disconfirming behavior leads to perceptions of confirmation. Instead, we contend that instructors who fail to respond well to questions, demonstrate an interest in students, and offer a variety of teaching methods and techniques will not be perceived as particularly confirming, even though they may avoid the use of overtly disconfirming behaviors. Consistent with this logic, we operationalized perceived teacher confirmation using Ellis's original three-factor solution.
