A Functional Review of Research on Clarity, Immediacy, and Credibility of Teachers and Their Impacts on Motivation and Engagement of Students

• Published in: Frontiers in psychology Vol. 12; p. 712419
• Main Author: Zheng, Jin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A 30.06.2021
• Subjects: motivation; positive psychology; Psychology; teacher's clarity; teacher's credibility; teacher's immediacy; teacher's interpersonal communication
• ISSN: 1664-1078; 1664-1078
• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.712419

The interpersonal communication behaviors of teachers have been substantiated to affect motivation, engagement, and success of students in the academic arena. Aiming to provide a systematic review of some teacher-related constructs in this domain, the present article was a bid to explain the crucial pillars of clarity, credibility, and immediacy of teachers in juxtaposition with theories and models of motivation and engagement of students. More particularly, this article presents some theoretical underpinnings to justify its claims using the ideas of positive psychology, the broaden-and-build theory, the rhetorical/relational goal theory, social cognitive theory, the attachment theory, some popular motivational theories, and the engagement theory. These theories signify the importance of clarity, credibility, and immediacy of teachers in the classroom and depict their association and impact on motivation and engagement of students. Later, the arguments are defended through a quick glance at the available empirical studies on each of the constructs. Afterward, the findings and implications of this review article are discussed. Finally, research gaps and future directions are presented for avid researchers to make new explorations.