Are We Violating Their Expectations? Instructor Communication Expectations of Traditional and Nontraditional Students

Abstract

For years, researchers have been telling teachers how to communicate with students. Advising them to be immediate, clear and engage in affinity-seeking behaviors has been based on traditional undergraduate student responses. Adult education scholars recognize age and experience create unique expectations for instructors and the learning environment. Utilizing Expectancy Violations Theory, an investigation of traditional and nontraditional students’ prescriptive expectations and experiences with instructor nonverbal immediacy, verbal immediacy, affinity seeking, and clarity behaviors reveals that differences exist and expectations are violated. Nontraditional students’ expectations for affinity seeking were positively violated, traditional students’ expectations for verbal immediacy were negatively violated, and expectations for instructor clarity behaviors were negatively violated for both groups.

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