Teacher's Nonverbal Behavior In The Classroom And Its Role In Developing Teacher-Student Relationship

This essay focuses upon the teacher's nonverbal behavior in the classroom, aiming to explore: (1) the role that teacher's nonverbal behavior plays in developing teacher-student -relationships; (2) the possibility of systematic modification of teachers' nonverbal behavior; and (3) the effectiveness of videotaping as a means for teacher nonverbal behavior modification. It is the argument of this essay that systematic modification of the teacher's nonverbal behavior within the classroom will lead to closer teacher-student relationships.A review of the past educational research concerning the teaching-learning process indicates that (1) much attention has been directed at "methodological advances" rather than at what is actually going on within the classroom; (2) teacher's nonverbal behavior has been largely ignored as subordinate to verbal communication; (3) it is hard to change a teacher's nonverbal behavior even if he feels a need to change; (4) nearly all of the nonverbal research has been done in the West by Western researchers, which makes it imperative that an investigation be done in China to provide Chinese teachers with empirical evidence of teacher nonverbal behavior change; and (5) tough teacher-student relationship has been proved to be the crucial factor in the teaching-learning process, no direct link has been found between teachers' nonverbal behavior and teacher-student relationship.In the light of the current nonverbal research findings and methods, the present writer conducted an empirical investigation in a medium-sized middle school, the purpose of which isto provide systematic, experimental evidence indicating that improvement of teacher nonverbal behavior will subsequently affect teacher-student relationships. Specifically, a videotape intervention plan was utilized to modify teacher nonverbal behavior throughout six weeks, that is, subject teachers were videotaped within the classrooms while instructing lessons, and later those videotapes were shown to them to let them see how well they had been actually doing in class. As individual teachers modified their behavior, student evaluations of teacher-student relationship and the appropriateness of teacher nonverbal behavior in the form of questionnaires were documented and fed back to the subject teachers.Basing upon the results of this investigation and other related research findings, the present writer concludes that (1) teacher's nonverbal behavior is as fundamental to classroom learning as is verbal communication; (2) teacher's nonverbal behavior is subject to systematic modification; (3) videotaping has been proven to be an effective way to modify teacher nonverbal behavior; and (4) teacher nonverbal behavior, student attitude toward teacher, and teacher-student relationship interact each other.It is to be hoped that this essay can help teachers acquire a correct understanding of the role that teacher's nonverbal behavior plays in the development of teacher-student relationship and the teaching-learning process, and usher Chinese teachers as well as researchers into a relatively uncultivated land out of which much can be shown and harvested.