Students' Appraisals of Instructors as a Function of Students' Perceptions of Instructors' Aggressive Communication

Abstract

Encouraging students to think critically often requires instructors to challenge their students in classroom discussion. It is crucial, however, that instructors adopt argumentative stances toward their students without veering into aggression. This investigation explored associations among student perceptions of instructor aggressive communication, perceived understanding, instructor credibility, and instructor evaluations. Participants were 228 undergraduate students enrolled in basic communication classes. Perceived instructor verbal aggressiveness (VA) was inversely associated with student perceptions of understanding, instructor credibility, and evaluations. Perceived instructor argumentativeness, in contrast, was positively associated with instructor credibility and evaluations. Perceived instructor VA was a stronger predictor of instructor credibility and evaluations than was perceived instructor argumentativeness. When combined, student perceptions of instructor aggressive communication and perceived understand ing accounted for 71% of the shared variance in a criterion composite of instructor credibility and evaluations. These findings affirm the importance of instructor communication behaviors that facilitate understanding and allow students to communicate successfully with their instructors.

Keywords:

• Argumentativeness
• Verbal Aggressiveness
• Instructor Credibility
• Student Evaluations
• Perceived Understanding