Resumen de College student learning, motivation, and satisfaction as a function of effective instructor communication behaviors

Scott A. Myers, Alan K. Goodboy

• The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which instructors simultaneously engage in specific rhetorical (i.e., clarity, humor) and relational (i.e., immediacy, confir- mation, and caring) communicative behaviors and how these behaviors are reflected in the learning outcomes (i.e., affective learning, cognitive learning, state motivation, and communication satisfaction) reported by stude nts. Participants were 286 undergraduate college students who were enrolled in one of three sociology courses at a large Mid-Atlantic university. The results indicated that all four learning outcomes were affected in some com- bination by perceived instructor clarity, humor, confirmation, and caring. Future research should continue to examine effective instruction using multibehavioral assessments, but may consider whether these assessments are linked to class size and type of institution.