The impact of teacher immediacy and perceived caring on teacher competence and trustworthiness

This research investigated the impact of teacher caring and teacher immediacy on student perceptions of teachers' credibility. While the results of the two studies conducted indicated the presence of strong main effects for teacher caring and immediacy and strong negative effects for teacher non‐caring and nonimmediacy on the various dimensions of teacher credibility (as hypothesized), significant interaction effects were observed between caring and nonimmediacy on both dimensions of credibility studied (competence and trustworthiness). In most cases, when teacher caring was low, whether the teacher was in the immediate or nonimmediate condition made no significant difference—both produced negative perceptions of teacher credibility. In contrast, when teacher caring was high, teacher nonimmediacy significantly lowered perceived credibility. Probing of the interaction results suggested that high verbal caring tends to soften the negative impact of teacher nonimmediacy. The results of these studies demonstrate that teachers should maintain high verbal caring to preserve their credibility in the classroom. Implications for teacher training and suggestions for future research are discussed.