Course evaluations can be an effective tool for students to appraise a course and instructor; however, they can also be a communicative space for students to write comments instructors perceive as hurtful, need to make sense of and reconcile with their instructional practice. Instructors turn to others to help make sense of and cope with comments.…

Instructors often struggle with how to make sense of and handle hurtful student course evaluation comments. These comments can be difficult to resolve when they move from constructive course criticisms to hurtful comments about an instructor's race, gender, appearance, or personality. Relying on the Meaning Making Model (MMM), this study explored…

This study used rhetorical and relational goal theory to examine the different ways college instructors respond to disruptive behaviors by students in the classroom. Student participants provided and described a critical incident involving a disruptive classmate that either was or was not handled effectively by the instructor. Results identified…

Instructors do not always meet students' expectations. Instead, they may be perceived as engaging in misbehaviors or unfair teaching practices that ultimately lead to student dissatisfaction. When this happens, students have a variety of options including dissenting rhetorically. Though much is known about why students dissent, in the current…

Instructors have the ability to respond to student evaluations on RateMyProfessors.com (RMP). The current research conceptualized the juxtaposition of student evaluations and instructor responses using communication processes on participatory websites. In an original experiment, the results demonstrated that when faced with multiple negative…

Feedback orientations refer to students' perceptions of instructional feedback utility, retention, sensitivity, and confidentiality. In this paper, we report three studies that investigated the relationships among feedback orientations and communication traits. Specifically, we examined the associations among communication adaptation traits (Study…

Using Expectancy Violations Theory as a framework, this study examined students' perceptions of how teachers manage compulsive communicators (CCs). College students (N = 265) were given one of three scenarios describing a teacher managing a compulsive communicator. After reading the scenario, students were asked to rate the expectedness of the…

Presents the conclusions of a nationwide survey on censorship in the schools and enumerates the ways that teachers can best protect themselves from censors. (NKA)

Reports on two studies that examine effects of trait communication apprehension on students' production and perceptions of written feedback. Finds, in the first study, trait anxiety was related to negative external attributions; while the second study showed that anxiety was associated with more internal interpretations. (MS)

Reports on a study which inductively derived a typology of students' compliance-resistance strategies that are frequently used in the college classroom. Probes the impact of teacher immediacy and strategy type on student message generation, and whether likelihood of resistance was related to the number of messages generated. (MM)

Indicates the differences between preteachers' and experienced teachers' cognitive schemes for classroom management. Experienced teachers reported using more pro and antisocial strategies than did prospective teachers. Both relied on antisocial techniques for active misbehaviors and prosocial for passive. (JK)

Assuming that teacher satisfaction is a function of effective student management ability, this study assesses the relationship between teacher satisfaction and the selective use of Behavior Alteration Techniques (BATs) in the classroom. Results indicate that selective BAT use is a significant predictor of teacher satisfaction at all levels. (JD)

Examines significant teacher behavior which positively affects students' perceptions of the teacher-student relationship. Identifies specific self-disclosive statements which students attributed to good and/or poor teachers. Finds a significant relationship between teachers' self-disclosive statements and students' perceptions. (MM)

Results showed a number of significant developmental changes in students' nonverbal communication as perceived by teachers. (PD)

Assesses the functional equivalence of two techniques for compliance-gaining research in the classroom: the constructionist approach and the strategy checklist technique. Describes a system for coding teachers' message constructions. Argues that the techniques are functionally equivalent. (MS)