Setting the Stage for Student Success: Avoiding Demotivating Students
Marjorie Keeshan Nadler & Ann Bainbridge Frymier
Teacher Nonverbal Communication Factors that Affect Student Motivation
I.
Teacher Nonverbal Communication – nonverbal behavior is used primarily
to communicate feelings, emotions, and relational status. Our nonverbal
communication tells students how we feel about them, how we view them.
A. Immediacy – perceived physical and psychological closeness. It can
also be described as approachability and is similar to enthusiasm. There
are a number of nonverbal behaviors that tend to result in reported student
perceptions of immediacy; these include:
• eye contact
• smiling
• gestures
• vocal variety
• forward leans
• appropriate touch
• open body posture
When students perceive teachers as immediate, students report:
• Greater motivation to study
• Greater affective learning
• Greater cognitive learning (also demonstrated in experimental
research)
• More tolerance of demanding course work
B. Caring/Empathy – also communicated primarily through nonverbal
behaviors. A general human need is to feel cared about. It is almost a
universal desire to be liked and valued by our superiors. There are three
main dimensions of empathy:
• perspective taking - a cognitive dimension
• empathic concern - an affective dimension
• communication responsiveness - a behavioral dimension (Stiff et al.
1988)
When students perceive instructors as more caring/empathic, research
has found:
• More willingness to communicate with faculty
• Higher levels of state motivation for learning
• Higher levels of learning