Research has indicated that students taught by lecture do as well as or better on tests of factual recall than those taught by discussion methods. -252
On the downside, lectures are not as effective as other methods in fostering higher levels of learning (application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) or in developing psychomotor skills. Students tend to be passive; according to various studies, their attention frequently wanes in fifteen to twenty-five minutes and their retention decreases by as much as 80 percent within about eight weeks. -252
Using student names, incorporating personal anecdotes and other means of self-disclosure, asking questions and encouraging students to talk, referring to the class as "our" class and to what "we" are doing, and using humor all contribute to immediacy, as do maintaining eye contact with the students, smiling, having a relaxed body position and using animated gestures, moving about the classroom during the lecture, and this point is very important to remember using a dynamic, vocally expressive style of delivery. These strategies have been shown to have both cognitive and affective learning payoffs. -253
For teachers to effectively coach students until they master a skill, it is essential that they be able to break the performance of the skill into separate components so that they can offer corrective instruction. -256
Some students got better and better at baseball just by getting more playing experience, but others simply repeated ineffective moves until they were pulled out of the game and allowed to concentrate only on one aspect of play until they got the hang of it. -256
Research provides evidence that students retain information longer when they have an opportunity to verbalize it, especially to their peers. -257
If students are given all the resources needed at the outset and a very specific model of what they are to come up with, much of the incidental learning from the group's process will be lost. The groups are then the educator's staff, working on the teacher's project rather than on their own. -258
In this section, we have suggested that a teacher might wear many hats: speaker, moderator, trainer, manager, and coordinator. Most teacher look good in all of them, and most students get tired of looking at the same hat every day. The hat most students prefer on their teacher, whether the teacher is in speaker, moderator, trainer, manager, or coordinator mode is the nonverbally receptive, expressive, supportive teacher. -258
We have stated for years that the primary function of teachers' verbal behavior in the classroom is to give content to improve students' cognitive learning. The primary function of teachers' nonverbal behavior in the classroom is to improve students' affect or liking for the subject matter, teacher, or class, and to instill in them the desire to learn more about the subject matter. -260
Therefore our advice is to dress formally for a week or two or until credibility is established. Then dress more casually to project the image that one is open to student interaction. -261
Unattractive children are commonly ignored by teachers, given less time to answer questions than their attractive counterparts, encouraged less to talk, given less eye contact, given more distance, and touched less by their teacher. This type of nonverbal behavior communicates to the unattractive child that he or she is not as good as the other students. -263
In the classroom, adaptors are probably the most common gestures used by students. The classroom is an anxiety-producing situation for many children. Observe a typical classroom and you will find students chewing pencils, biting their nails, picking at their desks or notebooks, pulling at their hair, smoothing their clothing, and clicking their pens. -264
Students use more adaptors in classes where they feel anxious or bored. -264
Increased teacher immediacy results in
Increased liking, affiliation, and positive affect on the part of the student. Immediate teachers are liked far more than nonimmediate teachers.
Increased student affect for the subject matter. Students who become motivated to learn the subject matter because of the teacher's immediate behaviors will do well in the content and continue to learn long after the teacher who motivated them is out of the picture.
Increased student cognitive learning. Students with immediate teahcers attend more to the subject matter, concentrate more on the subject, retain more of the content, and when challenged can correctly recall more of the subject matter than students with nonimmediate teachers.
Increased student motivation. It seems that the primary way that immediacy produces learning effects may be by increasing student motivation.
Reduced student resisitance to instructors' attempts to influence or modify behavior. Immediate teachers seem to have more referent, respect, or liking power; hence students tend to comply with or conform to the wishes of the more immediate teachers. Nonimmediate teachers have more difficulty getting students to comply with or conform to their wishes.
The teacher being perceived as a more competant communicator, one who listens and cares. Increased student-teacher communication and interaction.
A reduced status differential between student and teacher.
Higher evaluations from one's immediate supervisor. -276
[Starting with "The teacher being" I've only included the topic sentences for each of immediacy's effects.]
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