The focus of this review of the thesis is presented by the member of California State University Leslie Klukas. She focuses on instructional relationship, Communication, and the effects it has on academic buoyancy. The purpose of the study is founded on the idea as well as the many challenges that undergraduate and graduate students have with the completion of their coursework. Obviously, there are many challenges both on a personal as well as on an academic level that may prove to be setbacks and barriers to success. The focus as well as the major impact in the background of this article is based around looking at the challenges of rigorous academic programs that can make students feel as if they are struggling or able to maintain the same level of success in their coursework.
Obviously, the Klukas continues to focus on this idea of buoyancy which plays a major part in dealing with many of the typical setbacks as displayed within the main thesis. This is the most important background as well as the major of this thesis. It more importantly shows a high-level to focus on the interpretation of specific categories, relationship procedures, as well as the internal confirmation that individuals may have in maintaining this level of success. Being able to develop many of these articles is based around thinking of the major challenges and universal struggles that students have. This was the main motivation for her to focus on this particular focus area and more importantly try to answer questions about the relevancy of academic instrumentation, focus on power of use, and the results found. Even though the focus had a unique did analysis between regression and group focus areas, the discussion clearly finds a level of immediacy in confirmation to the procedural impacts of better communication and relationship scripts. By identifying and developing this type of procedure, there was a significance associated with how instructors, verbal, and nonverbal communication impacts student success. The majority of her background is focused on empowering students as well as developing a sense of thesis throughout the relationship between instructors and students in the academic landscape.
In Klukas’s study, “Instructor Relational Communication and Its Effect on Academic Buoyancy”, proved to show that instructor’s do have an impact on sparking a student’s motivation and ambition that positively affects their progression in a student’s setback. Klukas found her topic for her research study by narrowing down to a specific subject that can be studied on. Klukas was a professor for the undergraduate class Human Communications 101. Klukas expressed her love for teaching and building relationships with her students. She was always curious about whether instructors can have some kind of positive impact on a student that is struggling in their courses. Klukas explained the amount of data she collected and briefly explained how statistics was a major component that found her results. The main research instrument Klukas utilized was an online survey that was sent out via email to students at California State University of Fullerton. Klukas recommends in person surveys rather than online due to the fact that sometimes surveys are not always complete when done virtually. Due to the global pandemic, Klukas was limited to only electronic surveys. In total, 224 students did the survey, the pool of participants was very diverse. However, many electronic surveys were not complete and a number of them had to be disregarded to prevent inconsistent information. All participants were undergraduate and graduate level students. 37.5% of participants identified as Latino/Hispanic, 22.8% identified as Asian, 18.3% White, and 2.7% Black. The survey was Likert scale based with direct questions about workload and the aspects of a student’s relationship with their professors. Klukas used Likert scales because of how reliable they have been in thousands of studies over the recent decades of research. Klukas praised using library databases to find relevant outside sources that she tied into her study. Some of the hardships she faced was not finding enough resources specifically about the effect an instructor’s communication has in a classroom setting. However, she proved her hypothesis accurately through her surveys and calculations and her study was approved by the chair from the Human Communications Department.
Overall Klukas proved that the impact of the teacher on the students motivation and ambition can be really crucial and important. The specific ways a teacher’s verbal and non-verbal communication is done could be the spark a student is looking for or impact them negatively. The survey containing likert scales talked about earlier on the students through scales of academic buoyancy, teacher immediacy, teacher confirmation , teacher self-disclosure and a power base scale. Using a Likert scale is one of the most reliable and trustworthy ways to record information for these studies is the reason Klukas decided on this. Through these many sources of information we get a return result of immediacy and power base scales being very closely related to the academic buoyancy of the students. We learned that throughout Klukas study how truly important it is that the instructors relate self-disclosure on the course content, present open and welcoming environments for the students, be a immediate instructor, including confirming behaviors and be as knowledgeable in their area of teaching as possible all are important steps to leading all your students in the right direction to succeed. The study ends up revealing not just how the way teachers communicate impacts the ability of the students to obtain and learn but also how it has a impact on their motivation and the willingness to complete the task at hand. Although resources on a topic or research can be hard to find, Klukas helped show us that when conducting your own research and surveys you can provide enough information to prove the hypothesis through your own personal calculations. In conclusion Klukas helped provide the accurate information necessary to showcase a trustworthy and credible thesis towards instructors and the importance of the communication with students and is a great example for those learning and trying to create a thesis of their own.
The Society for Communications Research 