2.4 Teacher student congruence as a predictor of performance
2.4.2 Immediacy, affinity and cultural consonance
performance gap that seems to be perpetuated in the desegregated systems, but is not definite on how that might be achieved.
The relevance of the foregoing research by the likes of Obiakor and Horsford for this thesis is twofold:
1. culture and ethnicity related issues are shown to be relevant in terms of student learning and performance;
2. it is demonstrated that improvements in learning based performance can be achieved by considering cultural issues (such a teacher student ethnicity match) in learning strategies.
In attempting to explain the impact on learning of culture and ethnicity factors discussed above, including teacher student ethnicity match, various authors refer to the concepts of ‘immediacy’ and
‘affinity’ (Rucker and Gendrin (2003), Jussim et al., 1996, Sanders and Wiseman, 1990). The following section explores the role of immediacy and affinity in teacher student interaction and academic performance, with specific reference to the influence of cultural factors.
2.4.2 Immediacy, affinity and cultural consonance
self-report approach to demonstrate a positive relationship between immediacy scores and cognitive learning. An interesting caveat to this research is that it suggested a non-linear relationship between immediacy and cognitive learning. Moderately high immediacy scores in this study were found to correlate with moderately high cognitive learning performance, whereas high immediacy was not significantly related to high cognitive learning scores, suggesting the possibility that immediacy may have a threshold at which it becomes ‘unpalatable’ for the student and ineffective as a learning enabler. Gorham (1988) expanded on this study and was able to replicate the findings of earlier studies which showed a significant and positive relationship between non-verbal immediacy and affective learning. To overcome certain limitations inherent in the self-reporting approach, Kelley and Gorham (1988) conducted a study that involved ‘novel learning’ (i.e. the content being tested was not known to participants prior to the study). Once again, a strong and significant relationship was shown to exist between immediacy and cognitive learning. In this case, for example, certain immediacy behaviours were demonstrated to account for more than 11% of total learning variance.
Clearly, then, there is a positive relationship between immediacy (both verbal and non-verbal) and learning (both cognitive and affective). Why is this? Attempts at explanation have tended toward one of two theories. The first is that suggested by Kelley and Gorham (1988) and relates to what they call
‘arousal-attention’ to explain how immediacy enhances cognitive learning. They propound a theory that involves a chain of impact-immediacy, they claim, is likely to stimulate arousal in students, which in turn is necessary for and encourages attention, which is a pre-requisite for memory recall and ultimately, therefore, results in improved cognitive learning.
Other researchers have proposed an alternative theory based on ‘motivation’ (Christophel, 1990, Richmond, 1990). In terms of this explanation, students learn best when they want to learn. Thus, higher levels of immediate behaviour on the part of the teacher are seen to improve motivation levels among students and in turn result in enhanced learning. Christophel (1990) was able to provide evidence that convincingly related immediacy to motivation levels among students in her study.
2.4.2.2 The role of affinity
The concept of ‘immediacy’ is closely related to that of affinity. Thus, an alternative explanation for the impact of immediacy is that it improves affinity between teacher and student and this contributes to a more conducive learning environment for students, which in turn enhances learning. Involving affinity in the chain of impact leading from immediacy to performance improvement in the classroom means that the relationship between immediacy and learning is indirect, but nevertheless consequential.
McCroskey and Richmond (1992) relate ‘affinity’ to the amount of power an individual grants another and synonymises the expression with ‘liking, loving, admiring and respecting’. With reference to their research on ‘power’ in various contexts, including the classroom, McCroskey et al.
identify the teacher as being able to influence students to engage in the behaviours necessary to achieve the desired learning outcomes and point out that students will tend to be less resistant to instructions from a teacher with whom the student shares a strong sense of affinity. Bell and Daly (1984) suggest a variety of ‘affinity seeking’ strategies, implying that affinity is not necessarily simply the result of innate characteristics, but can be cultivated and learned. Assuming that affinity is a positive factor in enhancing learning and performance in the classroom, the implication is that any strategy that can enhance affinity (such as racial congruence or immediacy) between teacher and student can positively contribute to improving academic performance.
Wilson (2006) makes a similar point about the importance of a strong sense of affinity between student and teacher and expresses the opinion that immediacy behaviours are simply a subset of all those actions that demonstrate affinity between teacher and student (or, put simply, that a teacher
‘likes’ the student). Demonstrating the ‘chain of impact’, Wilson further reports that student perceptions of the extent to which they are ‘liked’ by their lecturer can be correlated with student levels of motivation and performance in the classroom (Wilson and Taylor, 2001). In particular, communicating genuine concern for students was identified as being one of the most significant expressions of teacher student affinity in terms of impact on the motivation and attitude of the student.
Wilson opines that it may be misguided, therefore, to focus exclusively on the impact of immediacy as a predictor of student attitudes and performance and that the more important factor is the student’s perception of teacher affinity (Wilson, 2006).
The foregoing, therefore, suggests that while immediacy is undoubtedly a factor that contributes to enhanced learning, the impact is indirect and is a subset of the various factors that contribute jointly to a sense of affinity between student and teacher, which is the most important predictor of student learning outcomes.
2.4.2.3 Race and immediacy
It would be naïve to assume that immediacy would be experienced in the same way across various cultures and ethnicities. McCroskey et al. (1992) point out that it is well established that non-verbal behaviours vary across cultures in terms of norms and impact. Various studies have shown that immediacy is a factor in cognitive and affective learning across cultures, but varies in terms of both level of impact and the specific immediacy items being considered (Powell and Harville, 1990,
Sanders and Wiseman, 1990, Neuliep, 1995). Thus, specific ethnic subgroups may respond more intensely to certain immediacy behaviours than others. Black students in Sanders and Wiseman’s study, in particular, showed evidence of responding very differently to certain items than other groups (Sanders and Wiseman, 1990).
It is possible that this variety in items and impact of immediacy across cultures explains the findings of researchers who demonstrate a relationship between teacher student racial congruence and performance. In this respect, it could be that racial congruence results in ‘natural immediacy’
whereby the teacher’s immediate behaviours are consonant with student expectations due to a shared culture and communication style.
Rucker and Gendrin (2003) explored the aspect of racial identity in their study on immediacy and its impact on cognitive learning in a historically Black university in the United States. Rucker et al. used Gorham’s 20 item verbal immediacy tool and Richmond, Gorham and McCroskey’s 14 item nonverbal immediacy measure with 239 students (Richmond et al., 1987, Gorham, 1988). However, the added dimension of ‘Black identity’ was included in this study by asking students to respond to the centrality and ideology dimensions of the Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity developed by Sellers et al. (1998). These elements were included on the premise that students with strong Black identity would be assumed to prefer an ethnically congruent learning environment and that this may influence their scores for teacher immediacy based on the ethnicity of the teacher. The results of this study suggested that Black students who had a strong sense of ethnic identity identified more strongly with the immediacy behaviours of Black teachers and therefore cognitive learning was improved in these racially congruent contexts. In summary, Black students’ performance was shown to be positively related to teacher student racial consonance, particularly where the student had a strong sense of ethnic identity.
The research into cultural aspects of immediacy indicate that at least some immediacy behaviour is based on innate factors, such as personality or culture (Sanders and Wiseman, 1990). However, a number of studies have shown that immediacy behaviours can also be taught and that these taught behaviours, when implemented in the classroom, are impactful as enhancers of affect on the part of students for both teachers and subject matter (Richmond et al., 1986 ). The implication is that teachers can be trained to become more immediate (in respect of specific immediacy items that are culturally relevant for the particular group of students) and therefore more effective.
2.5 Racial identity and the role of perception in student academic performance