Abstract:

Non-verbal communication (NVC) cues are fundamental in teacher performance and lecture delivery. This paper seeks to provide insights on university students’ perceptions of the role of NVC in classroom from a cross-cultural perspective. Specifically, it examines perceived usefulness and effectiveness of teacher NVC among university students in three different countries, i.e. Spain, Italy and Croatia. It also analyses how student assessments change according to their academic performance measured in terms of grade point average (GPA). Data from the sample of 428 students show moderately high levels of perceived usefulness and effectiveness of NVC in classroom. Culture seems to play a significant role in student evaluations as the Kruskal-Wallis H test showed significant differences among students when their cultural backgrounds were considered. In particular, Croatian students assigned highest scores to all items that assessed NVC usefulness and effectiveness, followed by Spanish and Italian students, respectively. Finally, a significant relationship seems to exist between student academic performance and perceived usefulness of NVC, as students with high GPA perceived to significantly greater extant NVC as a valuable mean for understanding the topic and increasing learning than their counterparts with average and low academic performance.

Keywords:

Non-verbal communication (NVC), NVC usefulness, NVC effectiveness, cultural differences, grade point average (GPA).