Instructional Dissent in the College Classroom: Using the Instructional Beliefs Model as a Framework

Abstract

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 own academic self-efficacy and communicative behaviors following a disagreement or difference of opinion with the instructor. Results indicated that students' academic self-efficacy mediates the relationship between instructor behaviors and two communicative outcomes of instructional dissent. Students who perceived their instructors as clear were more likely to have high self-efficacy for the course and therefore engage in more positive (i.e., rhetorical) forms of dissent as opposed to more negative expressive dissent. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed.

Keywords:

• Instructional Beliefs Model
• Clarity
• Nonverbal Immediacy
• Affirming Style
• Academic Self-efficacy
• Instructional Dissent

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sara LaBelle

Sara LaBelle (M.A., West Virginia University, 2011) is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication Studies at West Virginia University

Matthew M. Martin

Matthew M. Martin (Ph.D., Kent State University, 1992) is Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at West Virginia University

Keith Weber

Keith Weber (Ed.D., West Virginia University, 1998) is Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at West Virginia University