| Abstract: | Cognitive and educational researchers are paying increasing attention to the impact of instruction in the college classroom. Recent research has demonstrated that students' manipulated perceptions of control and success can impede or enhance the benefits of one effective teaching behavior, namely, instructor expressiveness. In this study, students' actual perceptions of control and success were assessed, rather than manipulated. In a simulated college classroom, students were classified into perceived control (low, high) and perceived success (low, high) categories based on their perceptions of control and success over their prelecture test performance. Students were presented with either unexpressive or expressive instruction; then they completed a postlecture achievement test and postachievement questionnaire. Under both instruction conditions, high-control/high-success students demonstrated the best achievement results, whereas, inconsistent with the hypotheses, students with low perceptions of control and high perceptions of success demonstrated the poorest academic performance and unique affects. These results are discussed in relation to the significance of individual differences across teaching conditions. |
