Enhancing Student Perceptions of Fairness: The Relationship between Instructor Credibility and Classroom Justice

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationships between college students’ perceptions of instructor credibility (competence, character, and caring) and their perceptions of classroom justice (distributive, procedural, and interactional justice). Results indicate that perceptions of instructor credibility positively predicted perceptions of classroom justice. Specifically, instructor competence predicted interactional justice; instructor caring predicted procedural and interactional justice; and instructor character predicted distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. In short, instructor credibility was most strongly related to interactional (versus distributive and procedural) justice and instructor character (versus competence or caring) was the most consistent predictor of classroom justice.

Keywords:

• Classroom Justice
• Fairness
• Credibility
• Competence
• Character
• Caring

An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the 2005 National Communication Association's annual meeting, Boston, MA.

An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the 2005 National Communication Association's annual meeting, Boston, MA.

Notes

An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the 2005 National Communication Association's annual meeting, Boston, MA.

1. Based on the results of confirmatory factor analyses, the inexpert/expert and informed/uninformed items were deleted from the competence scale, the self-centered/not self-centered and not understanding/understanding items were deleted from the caring scale, and the moral/immoral and phony/genuine items were eliminated from the character scale. For each of the credibility dimensions, internal consistency tests indicated that no error calculated between the remaining items was greater than sampling error. For distributive, procedural, and interactional justice, 3.57%, 5.45%, and 4.76% of errors between predicted and observed correlations, respectively, were greater than sampling error. Parallelism tests among the six variables (competence, character, caring, distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice) indicated that 5.16% of errors between predicted and observed correlations were greater than sampling error.

2. Women (n=71) versus men (n=84) perceived more distributive justice (M=4.07, SD=.73 vs. M=3.78, SD=.62), t (153) = 2.72, p<.05; and more procedural justice (M=4.16, SD=.71 vs. M=3.80, SD=.69), t (153) = 3.23, p<.05. Women versus men also perceived their instructors as more caring (M = 5.05, SD=1.57 vs. M=4.54, SD=1.17), t (153) = 2.30, p<.05; and of higher character (M=6.23, SD=.91 vs. M=5.90, SD=.98), t (153) = 2.15, p <.05. Participants aged 21 years or older (n=63) versus those aged 18 to 20 (n = 92) perceived more distributive justice (M=4.11, SD=.58 vs. M=3.78, SD=.72), t (153) = 3.02, p<.05; and more procedural justice (M=4.11, SD=.63 vs. M=3.87, SD=.76), t (153) = 2.04, p<.05.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rebecca M. Chory

Rebecca M. Chory (Ph.D., Michigan State University, 2000) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at West Virginia University