Study on College Teacher Communication Style and its Effects

Study on College Teacher Communication Style and its Effects
DING Chunping, CAO Aijuan,
College of Fashion, Zhejiang Sci- tech University
[email protected]
Abstract: Based on domestic and international literatures for communication style, teacher
communication style’s dimensions and action effect were summarized. Then, with the empirical study,
three hundred college students were surveyed by a bearer questionnaire. Both the factor analysis and
stepwise multiple regression analysis were conducted by SPSS 15.0 statistical analyses software to deal
with the data. Finally, the results indicated that college students perceived teacher communication style
from 7 dimensions: friendly style, attentive style, open style, impression- leaving style, animatedramatic style, relaxed style, and dominant- contentious style, among them the first five styles have a
positive effect on college students’ satisfaction with teachers and learning attitude. These findings
provide the basis for teachers to improve the teacher-student relationship as well as the effect of
teaching.
Keywords: Teacher communication style Satisfaction Learn attitude
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1. Introduction
Teacher communication style can be defined as teacher personality styles that are showed in the
information communication activities. In essence, the teaching process is a complex two-way
communication between teachers and students, in which teachers are considered as the main body
(John Deway, 1916) of information transmission to students. Communication style refers to an
individual's particular pattern of communication (Barber 1978) [1]. Psychological researches have
shown that if teachers can apply positive communication styles when they communicate with students
and loving for students equal and friendly, not only can improve teaching effect, but also can improve
the teacher-student relationship.
The college students is a special group, who have obvious preference and sufficient financial
capability to judge and choose teacher communication style. According to the referred materials, there
is no scholar have researched of college teacher communication style. Taking college students as the
research subject, exploring teacher communication style perceived by students as well as its effect, can
reflect the problems that existed in the teaching communication and show clearly direction of
improving teaching practice and have certain practical significance.
2. Literature review
In the area of communication style, there have been many researches. Leary (1957) stated that
people communicate according to two dimensions: a dominance- submission (or power or
influence)dimension and a cooperation- opposition (or proximity) dimension; Hall (1976) pointed out
there were high- context communication and low- context communication; Gudykuns et al. (1996)
isolated eight low- and high-context communication style: inferring , indirect, , sensitivity, dramatic,
felling, opening, precise and silence; Norton (1978) held that communication style is a multi level and
multi angle variable, including ten dimensions: dominant, dramatic, contentious, animated,
impression-leaving, relaxed, attentive, open, friendly and communicator image[3], this communication
style questionnaire has already been realized and acknowledged by the scholars. According to the
culture background of China, Zhou Li (2004) combined dominant style and contentious style into
dominant- contentious style, dramatic style and animated style into active style [4]. This study employed
teacher communication styles scales developed in Norton (1978)’s and Zhou Li (2004)’s study.
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While we know of no specific research on college teacher communication style, there have been a
number of studies analyzing TCS’ effect in terms of middle school teachers. For example,
psychological researches found that teacher communication style affect students’ satisfaction (The
Wubbels, 1992). Most studies indicated that there was a positive correlation between teaching effect
and teachers friendly style, relaxed style, concern style, attentive style , impression-leaving style, and
dramatic style; while negative correlation between teaching effect and dominant style, contentious style
(Norton, 1977; Aderson, Norton & Nussbaum, 1981 ; Norton, 1983; Rubin & Feezel, 1986; Emanuel,
1989) [5-8]. The research of TCS is becoming a “hot point” in communication management area.
However, many teacher- student communication and interactive problems have been done only in
foreign countries and on the middle school level. It seems weaker in China [6].
3. Research ideas and method
This article aims at analyzing these questions as follows:(1) students’ perceptions of their
teacher’s communication style; 2 the effect of teacher communication style on college students’
satisfaction and learning attitude. The questionnaire consists of three parts: the teacher communication
style scale, the teacher communication satisfaction scale, and student learning attitude scale, which has
good reliability and validity, can be used to this study.
A five-point Likert-type response scale (1---strongly disagree, 5---strongly agree) was used for
every item. We delivered 300 questionnaires to students in five colleges of China in three ways: 1)
Delivering questionnaires directly. 2) Delivering through e-mail. 3) Asking friends to deliver
questionnaires for us. At last 239 valid questionnaires were returned, yielding a valid response rate of
79.7%. Subsequently, the author adopts factor analysis, stepwise multiple regression analysis in SPSS
statistical analyses software to deal with the data of the questionnaire.
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4. Analyses and discussion
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4.1 Teacher communication style scale analysis TCS
We found by SPSS analysis that it was fit to do factor analysis (KMO: 0.836, Sig. Of Bartlett:
0.000). Method to apply the method of exploratory factor analysis, taking λ≥1 as the selecting principle
of common factor, using maximum variance rotating method, the number of maximum iteration was
25, the rotated component matrix after factor analysis shown as table 1:
Table 1. Rotated Component Matrix
component F1
F2
Q12 0.732 0.155
Q13 0.775 -0.030
Q14 0.778 0.156
Q15 0.694 0.262
Q30 0.074 0.787
Q31 0.274 0.708
Q32 0.084 0.580
Q33 0.169 0.639
Q06 0.276 -0.223
Q07 0.093 0.190
Q08 0.125 0.100
Q09 0.043 0.155
Q26 0.092 0.227
Q27 0.271 0.268
Q29 0.098 0.036
Q21 0.212 0.080
F3
F4
F5
F6
F7
0.134 0.007 0.268 0.035 0.089
0.226 0.144 0.129 0.029 0.023
0.194 0.162 0.171 0.057 0.029
-0.046 0.148 0.014 0.013 -0.039
-0.103 0.123 0.106 -0.011 0.093
0.178 0.073 0.213 0.049 -0.010
0.264 0.133 0.031 0.083 -0.172
0.099 0.280 0.301 -0.036 0.006
0.660 -0.020 -0.059 0.051 -0.062
0.724 0.063 0.084 0.068 0.071
0.632 0.239 0.291 -0.156 0.007
0.683 0.102 0.061 -0.083 0.008
0.097 0.787 0.163 -0.028 0.005
0.192 0.692 0.161 0.043 0.0045
0.065 0.809 0.095 -0.011 -0.042
0.158 0.011 0.640 0.143 -0.021
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Q22 0.118 0.203 0.100
Q23 0.183 0.263 -0.016
Q01 0.093 -0.158 0.046
Q02 -0.008 -0.029 -0.039
Q04 0.057 0.296 -0.064
Q16 -0.070 -0.118 0.212
Q18 0.133 0.139 0.165
Q19 0.047 -0.020 -0.251
0.223
.0286
-0.065
0.004
0.032
-0.103
0.229
-0.047
0.771
0.722
0.347
-0.101
-0.032
-0.134
0.245
0.000
-0.005 -0.038
-0.106 0.127
0.675 -0.086
0.789 0.034
0.564 0.057
0.228 0.664
-0.156
0.554
-0.042 0.755
The seven dimensions of teacher communication styles that emerged in the factor analysis
generally are consistent with the theoretical dimensions of teacher communication styles we expected
to emerge: impression- leaving style F1 , friendly style F2 , animate- dramatic style F3 ,
open style F4 , attentive style F5 , relaxed style F6 , and dominant- contentious style F7 .
They can account for 61.605% variance of communication styles. After confirmatory factor analysis
and reliability analysis secondly, we confirm that Cronbach’s α= 0.829 > 0.80, which indicated that the
teacher communication style (TCS) scale has good internal consistent, in another word, the
investigation data can be used into the multiple regression analysis.
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4.2 Students’ satisfaction scale and learning attitude scale analysis
In this study, there is no need for factor analysis, because students’ satisfaction and learning
attitude are both defined as a single factor. However, to ensure the quality of the questionnaire, the
correlations between items and total scores, and Cronbach coefficient need to be validated. Nunnally
(1975) suggested that if each of item-total score were over 0.5, the single factor scale had a high
reliability.
With SPSS15.0 to analyze the data, we find that, the Cronbach coefficient of students’ satisfaction
scale and learning attitude scale is respectively 0.895 and 0.801, which show they all have good
internal consistent, and can be used into the multiple regression analysis.
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4.3 Stepwise multiple regression analysis
Students’ satisfaction y1 and learning attitude y2 were considered as dependent variables,
and seven dimensions of college students perceived teacher communication styles (impression- leaving
style F1, friendly style F2, animate- dramatic style F3, open style F4, attentive style F5, relaxed style F6,
and dominant- contentious style F7 as independent variables, and then performing the stepwise
multiple regression analysis, to test the prediction ability of TCS toward the dependent variables.
Research
stated that there was no significant difference between constant term and 0 (p> 0.05),
which indicated constant term should not be present in the equation; the factors that impressionleaving style F1(β=0.286, t=6.267, p<0.001), friendly style F2 (β=0.462, t=10.122, p<0.001), open
style F4(β=0.295, t=6.459, p<0.001), and attentive style F5(β=0.330, t=7.225, p<0.001) are reached
the marked level by t-test (p< 0.001), so they should appear in the equation as independent variables;
animate- dramatic style F3(β=0.117, t=2.557, p<0.05) and relaxed style F7 (β=0.115, t=2.528, p<0.05)
can also appear in the equation as independent variables; but dominant- contentious style F6 was
kicked out of egression model, showed that there was no linear regression relation between this style
and students’ satisfaction. Therefore, we got the standard regressions formula:
y1 = 0.462×F2 + 0.329×F5 + 0.295×F4 + 0.286×F1 + 0.117×F3 + 0.116×F7
Research
stated that there was no significant difference between constant term and 0 (p> 0.05),
which indicated constant term should not be present in the equation; the factors that impressionleaving style F1(β=0.360, t=7.426, p<0.001), friendly style F2 (β=0.367, t=7.570, p<0.001), animatedramatic style F3(β=0.204, t=4.208, p<0.00) ,open style F4(β=0.289, t=5.970, p<0.001), and attentive
style F5(β=0.250, t=5.165, p<0.001) are reached the marked level by t-test (p< 0.001), so they should
appear in the equation as independent variables; relaxed style F7 and dominant- contentious style F6
Ⅰ
）
①
Ⅱ
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was kicked out of egression model, showed that there was no linear regression relation between this
style and students’ learning attitude. Therefore, we got the standard regressions formula:
y2= 0.367×F2+0.360×F1 + 0.289×F4 + 0.250×F5 + 0.204×F3
②
（Ⅰ）
（Ⅱ）
4.4 Discussion
Compared with the analysis of
and
, we can found that different TCS have
different effects on students’ satisfaction and learning attitude. Our work generated following research
results:
Firstly, friendly style, attentive style, open style, impression- leaving style and animate- dramatic
style have positive influence on both students’ satisfaction and learning attitude which were consistent
with those previous reports.
(1) In these two researches, “Friendly style” is ranked as the highest contributor in terms of
standardized beta coefficient, and it indicates that students prefer friendly communication style of
teachers. Based on Maslow's human need hierarchy theory, “respected demand” and “self-actualized
need” belong to the high-level needs. Humanistic educators believed that the good relations between
teachers and students will help the students to realize their potential, the launching of education.
Teachers with friendly style made good impression on students which can help students to foster selfconfidence, enhance self-esteem, to see their own values and inspire their potential ability.
(2) The attentive style has significant affects in both two researches. This finding has responsed of
the teacher's professional training conception-- teacher is a specialized occupation that pays attention
to human's development, helps them obtain the expectative developing. Additionally, it also reflects the
contemporary university students’ life background—at present, the college students on campus are the
first generations of only child in China, who are accustomed to accept loves from eldership since
childhood, after entering university they hope to receive their teacher's attention naturally.
3 Open communication style has positively effect on students’ satisfaction and learning
attitude. Teachers who have open style often listen to students with a sincere attitude; accept students’
suggestions with an open mind. Therefore, it is very easy for teachers to create a joyful communication
climate and win the good graces of students. Teachers’ impression- leaving style has positive influence
on students. Students prefer to animate- dramatic style, which can absorb the students' attention in
maximum, and help to shorten the teacher-student distance in mentally, such as “there are jokes,
anecdotes and stories farced frequently in our communication”.
Secondly, dominant- contentious style that has been used for optimizing teaching effect by
previous researchers (Zhou Li, 2004) was deleted from research model in both of two studies. Whereas,
the study of TCS in middle school found that dominant- contentious style was one of positive factors,
the two opposite findings show that TCS has different actions on different education stages. This is
because the training goal and learning environment of higher education are very different from those of
middle school education, and students learning style is gradually changed into studying consciously
and willingly.
Thirdly, comparing results of the two studies find that relaxed style was retained in the first study,
whereby it was kicked out of the research model in the second study. To the best of our knowledge,
there is no study which directly links TCS to students’ learning attitude. But the predecessors believed
that there was a significantly positive correlation between TCS and teaching effect, and the students’
learning attitude usually be used as one index to reflect the teaching effect.
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5. Conclusions
(1) The dimension of “communicator image” was deleted from the TCS scale to simplify the
structure of the questionnaire. Since remove communicator image it were not affect the final results, so
this dimension was deleted, and got that college students perceived teacher communication style from 7
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dimensions: friendly style, attentive style, open style, impression- leaving style, animate- dramatic style,
relaxed style, and dominant- contentious style.
(2)Friendly style, attentive style, open style, impression- leaving style and animate- dramatic style
have a positive effect on college students’ satisfaction and learning attitude, among the seven styles,
friendly style has the most significant influence on them.
(3) Dominant- contentious style has been kicked out of the two research model which indicated
that there is no linear relationship among teacher dominant- contentious style, students’ satisfaction
and learning attitude.
6. The Implications for teaching practice
Many teachers find that students do not like dominant- contentious style. However, for various
reasons such as fear, tension and so on, when students communicate with teachers, they are always
unconscious in a passive state. As a result, it is inevitable to adopt the force-feeding method of teaching
during the ordinary teaching process. Communication is a kind of interactivity and the initiative of
students depends on the teacher's encouragement and affirmation. Applying the communication styles
such as friendly style, impression- leaving style and open style may contribute to create equal and
friendly atmosphere of communication. Students should take the dominant position in communication
in order to mobilize their enthusiasm and initiative, develop their creativity and ability to participate.
Finally, students’ satisfaction will be improved and students' attitude towards learning will be corrected.
References
[1] Barber, Larry L. (1978), Communication. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc..
[2]Gudykunst, Yuko Matsumoto, Stella Ting-Toomey, Tsukasa Nishida, Kwangsu Kim, Sam Heyman,
The Influence of Cultural Individualism-Collectivism, Self Construals, and Individual Values on
Communication Styles Across Cultures[J]. Human Communication Research, 1996,22(4 :510-413.
[3]Norton R.W.1978. Foundation of a Communicator Style Construct. Human Communication
Research [J]. 1978, 4(2):99-112.
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