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.