ABSTRACT
The principal purpose of formal education in America is to help students acquire or modify cognitive, affective, and behavioral competencies through recognition, recall, and short-and long-term learning. The central role of the teacher is to create instructional environments in which the probability of achieving the intended educational objectives are met and student learning outcomes are enhanced (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001; Bloom, 1956; Krathwohl, Bloom, & Masia, 1964). Effective teacher behaviors and the accompanying appropriate use of power are directly related to increased student learning outcomes and to positive student evaluations of teaching (Nussbaum, 1992). Arguably, one of the most influential teacher behaviors, as reflected in the unsurpassed wealth of interrelated research, and the subsequent progress made over the past 25 years-not to mention the 10 years since the publication of the first edition of this monograph-is teacher immediacy (Richmond & McCroskey, 1992). In fact, we have argued elsewhere that teacher immediacy is one of the most important bodies of research to both communication and education scholars interested in understanding the variables that impact classroom learning (Chesebro & McCroskey, 1998,2000,2001).
