Abstract:

Research has been widely conducted on ways to enhance student learning through technology, understanding student learning, assessment, blended learning and many other ways. Quite often, soft skills like communication, which is one of the key factors in enhancing learning, are given little attention. However, for effective learning to take place, students need to be free to approach their lecturers and communicate with them, inside and outside the classroom. This is not happening as expected. As a result, lecturers need to be perceived by their students to be immediate, verbally and nonverbally, if they are to enhance learning. Institutions may have open door policies and consultations times that encourage student-lecturer interactions but if lecturers are unapproachable, these will exist only on paper. This paper explores perceptions of Lecturer Immediacy as a tool to enhance student learning. Instructors and learners need to be perceived to be physically or psychologically close. Immediacy is based on the Approach-Avoidance theory which posits that students are attracted to lecturers that they perceive to be trustworthy, competent and caring. The more students receive positive stimuli from their lecturers, the more learning will take place. The question is how immediate are lecturers during instruction?

A mixed methods approach was followed with qualitative data gathered through interviews with seven lecturers and lecture observations by the researchers. Quantitative data were gathered through 232 questionnaires distributed to students. The findings revealed that the lecturers were non-immediate most of the time, verbally and nonverbally. This negative stimuli leads to student avoidance, with negative implications for student learning. The findings further confirmed the bias often associated with self-reports because the lecturers perceived themselves to be immediate in all aspects of immediacy. The researchers recommend that Lecturer immediacy be incorporate as a variable in lecturers’ reflective tools, institutional evaluation systems and teacher training programmes to enhance student support, which will in turn enhance student learning.

Keywords:

Approach motivation, Avoidance motivation, Immediacy, verbal communication, nonverbal communication, higher education, Learner support, verbal immediacy.