Gary Creasey, Patricia Jarvis & Daniel Gadke, Psychology
Learner Autonomy and Achievement Motivation as a Fuction of Teacher Immediacy and Student Attachment Representations (Creasey/Jarvis/Gadke, PowerPoint)
In this session we will report the results of a theoretically driven study examining the role of contextual (e.g., classroom size), student (e.g., generalized attachment representations; relationship with instructor), and instructor (teacher immediacy) variables in terms of influencing learner autonomy (LA). We hypothesized that teacher immediacy would predict LA; however, this link would be mediated by the students’ perceived relationships with the instructor (e.g., connectedness, dependability, anxiety). Full-time undergraduate students (N = 290; ages 18-20) were assessed on the constructs in a randomly determined class. Statistical analysis of our theoretical model supported the primary hypothesis, in that, student-instructor relationship quality (high connectedness/dependability; low anxiety) mediated associations between teacher immediacy and LA. Further, students’ generalized attachment representations were unrelated to LA. These results suggest that competent, verbal and non-verbal immediacy behaviors exhibited by instructors lead to the development of a secure relationship between the student and instructor, which then predicts LA. These results were unrelated to the student’s general attachment orientation, suggesting that students who have had negative attachment experiences outside the classroom can form competent relationships with instructors. In addition, the verbal and non-verbal immediacy variables (e.g., looks at class while talking) that predicted the development of a positive student-instructor relationship are modifiable via training.
