Instructors and their students: The relationship between out-of-class communication, student communication motives, student motivation, and instructor job satisfaction and motivation.

摘要

The bulk of instructional communication research is concerned with the impact of instructors on students, leaving very few studies that focus on the affects of students on instructors. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to identify the impact students have on instructor out-of-class communication (OCC), job satisfaction, and motivation. Student relational, functional, participatory, excuse-making and sycophancy motives for communicating, along with perceived student motivation were examined in order to learn more about the influence of students on instructors. Participants (college instructors, N = 268) completed an online questionnaire about their OCC, job satisfaction, and motivation, as well as perceived student motivation and motives for communicating. Pearson correlations showed that when instructors perceived students as communicating for the relational and participatory motives, they were more likely to engage in OCC and feel more satisfied and motivated. There was also a relationship between perceived student motivation and instructor job satisfaction. No relationships were observed between the functional, excuse-making, and sycophancy student motives with instructor OCC, job satisfaction, or motivation.