Is teacher immediacy actually related to student cognitive learning?

Abstract

Based on an extensive body of research, many scholars believe that increases in teacher immediacy cause increases in student cognitive learning. This article examines the research that led to that conclusion. Taken as a whole, that line of research suffers from several shortcomings: (a) It lacks cognitive theoretical foundations, (b) it uses self‐report measures that may be flawed or ill‐suited, and (c) it founds causal claims on inappropriate data. As a result, the data that demonstrate a causal relationship between immediacy and cognitive learning may instead be reflecting a halo effect. This article proposes an alternative conception of how immediacy may function in the classroom, and reports an exploratory study intended to determine whether there is merit in farther pursuing the suggested alternative. Based on the theoretical arguments reviewed and data generated in this study, a revised agenda is proposed for advancing our understanding of how immediacy functions in the college classroom.