The ultimate goal of teachers is to produce learning in their students. This can be done through cognitive and/or affective learning. In most cases, to achieve this learning, students must comply to the teacher’s requests. Student compliance does not automatically happen, it requires specific strategies and techniques. There are many factors that affect student compliance, including the type of behavior alteration techniques and behavior alteration messages the teacher uses (BATs and BAMs), the type of power the teacher uses, misbehavior and resistance from the student, the student’s locus of control, situational factors, and the experience of the teacher.
Perhaps the most important of these factors are the teacher’s use of Behavior Alteration Techniques and their use of power. Behavior Alteration Techniques (BATs) have frequently been used in past studies on compliance-gaining in the classroom. BATs are techniques used by a source, in an attempt to influence the behavior of a receiver. These are power based strategies that have been isolated and studied as a significant means of classroom management. Researchers have found twenty-two different BATs. Each of these twenty-two BATs contains its own message, better known as a behavior alteration message (BAMs). These BATs and BAMs are the results of many studies on power in Randall P. Gonyea Chapter 1: Introduction 2 the classroom. Researchers Kearney, Plax, Sorensen, and Smith have argued that most of the BATs could be categorized as either pro-social or anti-social. Pro-social BATs include those messages that are designed to be helpful and beneficial to students. These techniques will encourage students, promote cooperation, and reflect traditional reward-based power. In all, there are eleven pro-social BATs; some of which include reward from others, altruism, peer modeling, and teacher feedback.
Perhaps the most important of these factors are the teacher’s use of Behavior Alteration Techniques and their use of power. Behavior Alteration Techniques (BATs) have frequently been used in past studies on compliance-gaining in the classroom. BATs are techniques used by a source, in an attempt to influence the behavior of a receiver. These are power based strategies that have been isolated and studied as a significant means of classroom management. Researchers have found twenty-two different BATs. Each of these twenty-two BATs contains its own message, better known as a behavior alteration message (BAMs). These BATs and BAMs are the results of many studies on power in Randall P. Gonyea Chapter 1: Introduction 2 the classroom. Researchers Kearney, Plax, Sorensen, and Smith have argued that most of the BATs could be categorized as either pro-social or anti-social. Pro-social BATs include those messages that are designed to be helpful and beneficial to students. These techniques will encourage students, promote cooperation, and reflect traditional reward-based power. In all, there are eleven pro-social BATs; some of which include reward from others, altruism, peer modeling, and teacher feedback.
On the other hand, anti-social BATs refer to those strategies that promote competitiveness, exclude students, undermine students' self-esteem, and reflect traditional punishment-based power. In all, there are seven anti-social BATs; some of which include punishment from teacher, punishment from others, guilt, and legitimate-teacher authority. Teachers reporting on which form of BATs they use in classroom situations is sketchy at best. Social desirability bias in response may play a role in this assertion. Teachers believe that they employ more pro-social techniques in class. They also believe that their colleagues use more anti-social methods with their classes. Students are more willing to comply when teachers employ pro-social techniques in the classroom. There was a general reluctance to comply with teacher request when anti-social BATs were chosen. A study by McCroskey, Richmod, Plax, and Kearney found that the perceptions of teachers and students are somewhat different in relation to which BATs are used the most.
Teachers reported themselves as using a greater number of BATs than Randall P. Gonyea Chapter 1: Introduction 3 students perceived them using, and teachers also perceived their particular use of BATs more favorably than students did. This study also found that the particular BATs teachers used depended greatly on their previous communication training. Finally, the study found that students reported no difference in positive BAT usage between trained and untrained teachers, but BATs that were negatively associated with learning were reported to be used more by untrained teachers. This shows a difference in the compliance gaining techniques of new and experienced teachers. Another study by Plax, Kearney, McCroskey, and Richmond looked at the effects of BAT use and teacher immediacy on students’ affective learning. They came up with five hypotheses:
Teachers reported themselves as using a greater number of BATs than Randall P. Gonyea Chapter 1: Introduction 3 students perceived them using, and teachers also perceived their particular use of BATs more favorably than students did. This study also found that the particular BATs teachers used depended greatly on their previous communication training. Finally, the study found that students reported no difference in positive BAT usage between trained and untrained teachers, but BATs that were negatively associated with learning were reported to be used more by untrained teachers. This shows a difference in the compliance gaining techniques of new and experienced teachers. Another study by Plax, Kearney, McCroskey, and Richmond looked at the effects of BAT use and teacher immediacy on students’ affective learning. They came up with five hypotheses:
1. Student affective learning would be affected by the way they perceived the BATs.
2. Student affective learning would also be affected by the teacher’s nonverbal immediacy.
3. Teacher BAT usage was related to teacher immediacy.
4. BATs and immediacy should be able to predict student affective learning.
5. They devised two models to test whether BATs or immediacy were more predictive of student affective learning.
The results of this study confirmed every hypothesis. Their analyses showed that immediacy was a better predictor of student affective learning than BAT use.
REFERENCES:
Boster, F. J. (1988). Comments on the utility of compliance-gaining message selection tasks. Human Communication Research, 15, 169-177
Boster, F. J. & Stiff, J. B. (1984). Compliance-gaining message selection behavior. Human Communication Research, 10, 539-536.
Richmond & J. C. McCroskey. Power in the Classroom: Communication, Control, and Concern. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, (pp. 85-100).
Kearney, P., Plax, T. G., Richmond, V. P., & McCroskey, J. C. (1984). Power in the classroom IV: Alternatives to discipline. In R. N. Bostrom (Ed.), Communication yearbook, 8, 724-726.
Levenson, H. (1974). Activism and powerful others: Distinctions within the concept of internal-external control. Journal of Personality Assessment, 38, 377-383.
McCroskey, J. C., Fayer, J. M., Richmond, V. P., Sallinen, A., & Barraclough, R. A. (1996). A multi-cultural examination of the relationship between nonverbal immediacy and affective learning. Communication Quarterly, 44, 297-307.
