An exploration of the relation among verbal and nonverbal instructor immediacy behaviors and student motivation to learn within the higher education classroom

This quantitative study explores relationships between instructors' nonverbal and verbal immediacy behaviors and students' motivation to learn at three institutions. Data were collected at a major research university, a small liberal arts university, and a community college. ANCOVA analyses indicated significant relationships between students' motivation to learn and both forms of immediacy for some of the institutions' results. Some slope differences of immediacy and students' motivation to learn were found between the major research university and community college. However, slope differences did not significantly differ between the institutions after a Bonferoni test was performed. The results are discussed and implications are given for instructors and administrators at different higher education institutions. Future researchers are encouraged to further investigate relationships between instructors' immediacy behaviors and students' motivation to learn at different Carnegie classification higher education institutions.