Instructional Dissent Research Articles

Student-to-student communication: examining and extending our conceptualization and measurement of instructional dissent

ABSTRACT Instructional dissent has been studied for over a decade. Expressive dissent, a subset of instructional dissent, focuses specifically on when students are complaining to one or more other students. This article lays out instructional dissent’s origins in organizational psychology and organizational communication. From there, the article homes in specifically on the predictors and correlates of expressive dissent, which focuses attention on student–student communication. Within this section, student, instructor, and class characteristics are addressed, concluding with a call for testing the full Instructional Beliefs Model to (1) assess the interconnections of these three components and (2) find a combination of factors that explains expressive dissent across a variety of learners and situations. Research implications call for methodological strategies, such as better reporting and validity testing, as well as theory building to achieve stronger results that can be turned into practical implications for both students and instructors.

“You can get clarity that other students may feel the same way you do”: exploring students’ decision-making around and motivations for engaging in evaluative talk about instructors

ABSTRACT This multimethod study was conducted to explore students’ decision-making to approach or avoid interactions with peers about instructors and investigate motivations for instructional dissent. Participants (N = 124 college students) responded to measures of instructional dissent behavior and motivations for social gossip, then responded to an open-ended question about the risks and benefits of talking about instructors with other students. Quantitative results indicated that expressive and vengeful dissent were related to the following motives for gossiping about instructors: information gathering and validation, group protection, negative influence and social enjoyment. Regression analyses revealed negative influence and group protection account for unique variance in expressive dissent, while social enjoyment and negative influence account for unique variance in vengeful dissent. Qualitative results suggest students’ decision-making to engage in interactions with other students about instructors is informed by concerns for self and others, and reflects social motivations for gossip. The implications of these findings on instructor and student communication are discussed.

Profiles of achievement motivation and instructional dissent

ABSTRACT We integrated perspectives from achievement goal theory and expectancy-value theory to investigate how undergraduate students’ (N = 475) achievement motivation might influence their instructional dissent. A latent profile analysis of students’ achievement goals, performance self-efficacy, task value, and perceived cost revealed four distinct subgroups of students characterized by differences in their achievement motivation. Students between these latent profiles differed to some degree in their use of expressive and vengeful dissent but not rhetorical dissent. When examining instructor clarity as a triggering agent of dissent, lack of clarity was positively associated with all three types of instructional dissent; however, auxiliary moderation models revealed that latent profile membership did not moderate these effects. Our results suggest that although instructor clarity has similar effects on students’ instructional dissent—regardless of their latent profile membership—students still experience some differences in instructional dissent which can be explained by their achievement motivation profiles.

Profiles of doctoral students’ self-determination: susceptibilities to burnout and dissent

ABSTRACT Using a person-centered approach and guided by four mini-theories within self-determination theory, we investigated students’ motivation for pursuing their doctorate. Specifically, we examined students’ (N = 205) intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to persevere in their doctoral studies to ascertain if differences in the quality of their motivation would influence burnout symptoms and, in turn, tendencies to enact instructional dissent in their doctoral program. Results of a latent profile analysis indicated the presence of three profiles characterized by distinct combinations of autonomous and controlled forms of motivation. Doctoral students who indicated satisfaction with their autonomy and competence needs were more likely to be categorized into a highly motivated profile characterized by high autonomous motivation and moderate controlled motivation. Tests of mediation from latent motivation profiles on (a) expressive dissent through exhaustion, (b) vengeful dissent through cynicism, and (c) rhetorical dissent through professional efficacy revealed that highly motivated doctoral students were less susceptible to burnout symptoms and, subsequently, engaged in less expressive and vengeful dissent but greater rhetorical dissent.

Classroom Culture When Students are Reluctant to Learn Online: Student Dissent Behaviors Explained by Their Self-Efficacy, Control of Learning, and Intrinsic Motivation

Student beliefs about classroom culture, instructor behaviors, and their own abilities to learn significantly influence their academic engagement. COVID-19 has drastically altered the classroom environment, forcing many students into a virtual learning platform they may not have preferred or felt comfortable with. Whether it is the fault of the instructor or the environment, students who are dissatisfied engage in instructional dissent. This study examined the influence of instructor clarity, instructor relevance, self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice on student dissent. The data supported six modified models, indicating a significant difference between students’ expressive, rhetorical, and vengeful dissent behaviors based on whether or not they were enrolled in their preferred learning platform.

Instructional dissent over the course of the semester

ABSTRACT The purpose of this longitudinal study was to model student trajectories of instructional dissent over the course of a semester. Participants were 312 undergraduate students who completed panel surveys on their worst course of the semester at three time points: during the beginning, middle, and end of a college course. Latent growth curve modeling revealed that, on average, expressive dissent slightly decreased, rhetorical dissent remained unchanged, and vengeful dissent slightly increased each month during the semester. Above and beyond the dissent growth process, student anger and hopelessness were independent and contemporaneous predictors of expressive and vengeful dissent at each time point.

Instructional dissent as an expression of students’ class-related achievement emotions

This study examined how college students’ class-related achievement emotions are related to their tendencies to dissent about a college course. Student participants (N = 383) completed a survey about their worst course of the semester by reporting on their class-related achievement emotions and how they dissented about their class. Results from ordinary least squares regression analyses revealed that achievement emotions were uniquely associated with instructional dissent: (a) hope, pride, anger, and anxiety predicted expressive dissent scores, (b) anger, hopelessness, and boredom predicted rhetorical dissent scores, (c) and enjoyment, anger, anxiety, shame, and hopelessness predicted vengeful dissent scores. This study provides initial evidence suggesting that students’ feelings about a class are tied to their types of complaining.

Instructor Humor as a Moderator of Instructors’ Inappropriate Conversations and Instructional Dissent

This study (N = 326) was conducted to examine the associations among instructor humor, inappropriate conversations, and instructional dissent. First, results showed students are more likely to employ rhetorical dissent when they perceive their instructors as humorous in the classroom. Second, using expectancy violations theory as a guide, results also indicated that students’ perceptions of instructor-relevant humor moderated the relationships between enactment of inappropriate conversations and students’ expressive and vengeful dissent. These findings support the importance of employing relevant humor in course instruction, especially when instructors engage in inappropriate conversations in the college classroom.

Evaluation of Academic Self - Efficacy Perceptions and Instructional Dissent Attitudes of Teacher Candidates in Terms of Classroom Management

In this study, academic self-efficacy perceptions and instructional dissent attitudes of teacher candidates have been examined and the findings have been evaluated in terms of classroom management. The population consists 2409 teacher candidates from the Faculty of Education in Eskisehir Osman Gazi University in the fall semester of 2018. Descriptive statistics were used while evaluating their perceptions and attitudes. Non-parametric tests were applied in the analysis since the data distribution was not normal. Mann Whitney U Analysis was used to determine whether there was a significant difference in their academic self-efficacy perceptions and instructional dissent attitudes by gender, while Kruskal Wallis Analysis was used to determine whether there was a significant difference by departments. Spearman’s Rank Correlation Analysis was used to determine whether there is a relationship between their academic self-efficacy perceptions and instructional dissent attitudes. According to the findings, it has been seen that the academic self-efficacy perceptions of teacher candidates are at a normal level and instructional dissent attitudes are at a low level. The total scores of teacher candidates calculated for the whole academic self-efficacy perceptions and coping subdimension were significantly different in favor of female candidates. There was no significant difference by departments. There was no significant difference in instructional dissent by gender and departments. It has been found out that there is a low-level relationship between the total scores of academic self-efficacy perception levels and instructional dissent attitudes of teacher candidates.

Noncompliance and dissent with cell phone policies: a psychological reactance theoretical perspective

ABSTRACTThis study employed Brehm’s psychological reactance theory (PRT) to understand why students do or do not choose to follow classroom cell phone policies. Results (N = 750) from this study demonstrate that when instructors discourage cell phone use for noninstructional reasons, students feel their autonomy has been threatened. These perceptions of freedom threat ultimately induce a reactance process, leading sequentially to negative cognitions and anger, which predict policy noncompliance. This reactance process is also predictive of students’ enactment of other uncivil classroom behaviors (i.e., instructional dissent). Theoretical implications are discussed, and practical suggestions are given for instructors hoping to increase cell phone policy compliance and limit reactance among students in the classroom.

Foundational aspects of classroom relations: associations between teachers’ immediacy behaviours, classroom democracy, class identification and learning

This study focused on foundational aspects of classroom relations. Specifically, relationships between teachers’ immediacy (interpersonal) behaviours, classroom democracy, identification and learning were considered. Previous work suggests that these variables can be used as a foundation to shape classroom climate, culture and learning outcomes and, by extension, assist educational institutions to achieve their civic mission. This study examined classroom democracy and class identification as variables that mediate the relationship between immediacy behaviours and learning using data collected from 529 students in six institutions of higher learning in Rwanda. Structural equation modeling revealed that classroom democracy mediates the relationship between immediacy behaviours and that classroom democracy and class identification covary substantially. The significant relationships in the final structural model suggest that immediate teachers are likely to have a positive influence on perceptions of classroom democracy, class identification and learning. Based on the growing scholarship of instructional dissent, this study highlights the foundational and strategic aspects underlying these relationships within the context of relating in the classroom and beyond.

Instructional Dissent as a Conservation of Resources for Emotionally Exhausted Students

Since its inception, scholars have examined teacher behaviors and student characteristics that contribute to instructional dissent. The model tested in the current study includes student emotional exhaustion, anger, emotion work, and emotional support as contributors to expressive, vengeful, and rhetorical dissent at the end of the semester. Participants were 196 university students who reported on their general levels of emotional exhaustion before completing measures of anger, emotion work, emotional support, and instructional dissent in a specific class. From a conservation of resources theoretical perspective, results indicate that emotionally exhausted students dissent to restore emotional resources or to protect from additional resource drain.

An Investigation of Students’ Forgiveness, Instructional Dissent, and Learning in the College Classroom

The current study examined the belief that students’ forgiveness mediates the relationship between instructor transgressions and students outcomes. Students’ descriptions of instructor relational transgressions were consistent with Kearney, Plax, Hays, and Ivey's (1991) typology of incompetent, offensive, and indolent misbehaviors. Results supported the mediating role of forgiveness, indicating that perceived severity and blameworthiness associated with instructor misbehaviors predicted students’ forgiveness, which in turn influenced students’ instructional dissent as well as affective and cognitive learning. Consistent with research in interpersonal communication, results suggest that perceptions and forgiveness of misbehaviors are important to understand in order to maximize positive outcomes in the college classroom.

When Professors Bully Graduate Students: Effects on Student Interest, Instructional Dissent, and Intentions to Leave Graduate Education

Academia can be a hostile place when faculty members and departments mistreat their graduate students. This study used a survey of 272 graduate students enrolled in a variety of programs and investigated bullying from the graduate student perspective. Our results indicated when graduate students viewed that they had been bullied by professors in their department (via belittlement, punishment, managerial misconduct, exclusion), they reported lower levels of student interest (meaningfulness, competence, impact) and a greater intention to leave the program. Students also reported they were more likely to communicate expressive and vengeful dissent in response. In the discussion, we outlined the ways departments can improve the quality of their graduate education culture.

Feeling Valued Matters: An Examination of Instructor Confirmation and Instructional Dissent

This study explored the relationship between effective instructor behavior—instructor confirmation—and a potentially negative student behavior—instructional dissent. Previous studies demonstrate that student characteristics provide a limited explanation for how students express dissent (e.g., Goodboy & Myers, 2012). Thus, scholars have begun to investigate the influence of instructor behaviors along with student characteristics to understand why students express dissent (LaBelle, Martin, & Weber, 2013). This study revealed that instructor confirmation negatively related to expressive and vengeful dissent, but not rhetorical dissent. Further, the three dimensions of instructor confirmation functioned differently in accounting for variance in expressive and vengeful dissent. Future research should build towards a model of instructional dissent model that reflects the unique characteristics of the instructional context and modifiable instructor behaviors.

Examining the Role of Self-Disclosure and Connectedness in the Process of Instructional Dissent: A Test of the Instructional Beliefs Model

The current study examined the relationship between student-to-student communicative behaviors and communication outcomes in the college classroom. The instructional beliefs model was used to examine student self-disclosures, student perceptions of connectedness, and student enactment of instructional dissent. Students (N = 351) completed questionnaires assessing their perceptions of other students' self-disclosures, classroom connectedness, and their own enactment of expressive, rhetorical, and vengeful dissent. Results of path analyses indicate that students' perceptions of classroom connectedness mediate the relationship between student self-disclosure and enactment of instructional dissent, particularly in the case of vengeful dissent. These results offer increased understanding of the ways in which student-to-student communication affects perceptual and communicative outcomes in the college classroom.

Students' Instructional Dissent and Relationships with Faculty Members' Burnout, Commitment, Satisfaction, and Efficacy

Extending research on instructional dissent beyond student reports, this study examined the potential for students' expressed dissent to have deleterious effects on faculty members. Instructors (N = 113) completed surveys about students' instructional dissent regarding their classes and reported their own burnout, commitment, satisfaction, and efficacy. Results indicated that (a) expressive dissent was positively related to emotional exhaustion and negatively related to teaching satisfaction and classroom management efficacy; (b) rhetorical dissent was positively related to instructional strategy efficacy; and (c) vengeful dissent was negatively related to affective organizational commitment and teaching satisfaction. Thus, the types of instructional dissent differentially impact instructors' professional outcomes, providing insight into stressors for faculty members.

Students' Imagined Interactions as Intrapersonal Explanations for Instructional Dissent

The purpose of this study was to examine how college students' intrapersonal communication experiences (i.e., imagined interactions) with disliked instructors contribute to their proclivity to communicate instructional dissent (i.e., expressive, rhetorical, vengeful). Student participants (N = 181) completed a self-report questionnaire measuring their use of imagined interactions with their worst instructor in the past academic year, along with reports of their course-related dissent. Results of a canonical correlation revealed that the frequency, valence, and rehearsal of students' imagined interactions with a low affect instructor are related to forms of instructional dissent.

An Experimental Investigation of the Antecedents and Consequences of Psychological Reactance in the College Classroom

Psychological reactance theory (PRT) is largely understudied in the classroom context. In this experiment, we manipulated instructors' use of clarity and forceful language as antecedents of psychological reactance and examined student communication outcomes (i.e., instructional dissent and challenge behavior) as ways in which students restore freedom after experiencing reactance. College students (N = 206) responded to one of four experimental conditions manipulating clarity and forceful language in an instructor's persuasive message to complete an extra assignment. Results revealed positive associations between messages using either unclear or forceful language and student reports of perceived threat, which predicted psychological reactance. Reactance mediated the relationship between students' perceived threat and their intentions to engage in different types of instructional dissent and challenge behavior. This study further supports PRT in the instructional context and adds to the literature on freedom restoration behaviors.

Student temperament and motives as predictors of instructional dissent

The purpose of this study was to examine if students' Big Five personality traits (i.e., neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness) and their motives for communicating with an instructor (i.e., relational, functional, participatory, excuse-making, sycophancy) were significant predictors of instructional dissent (i.e., expressive, rhetorical, vengeful) in the college classroom. Student participants (N=240) completed a questionnaire using self-reports of their own personality traits, motives, and frequency of communicating instructional dissent in reference to a target course. Results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that (a) expressive dissent was predicted by students' neuroticism, extraversion, and agreeableness, (b) rhetorical dissent was predicted by students' extraversion and agreeableness, and (c) vengeful dissent was predicted by students' openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. After controlling for the Big 5 traits, (d) the excuse-making, sycophancy, and functional motives predicted additional variance in instructional dissent.