Power in the classroom I: Teacher and student perceptions

learninghavebeenespousedand newcommunicationtechniques/strategiesare beingencouragedasalternativemethodstothetraditionalclassroommodel.How-ever,thetraditionalviewofeducation,aviewthatstillprevails,holdsthatlearners mustsubmitthemselvesto teachers(Menges,1977,p.5).As Mengesfurther suggests,thisviewmeansthattheteachersauthorityis nottobequestioned.The underlyingassumptionis thatwithoutthecommunicationof powerbytheteacher overthestudent,thestudentcannotlearn. Hurt,Scott,andMcCroskey(1978)suggestthatin aclassroomsettingacertain degreeof teacherpoweris alwayspresent(p. 125).They continue.bysuggesting thatthemorepowerisemployedbytheteacherasameansofcontrol,themorelikely itwill berequiredasameansofcontrol.In otherwordsthemoreit isused,themore it will needtobeused(p.125). The primaryfocusof thisstudyis todeterminethedegreetowhichteachersand studentshavesharedperceptionsoftheuseof powerin theclassroom.If thereis a highdegreeofsharedperceptionsthismightillustratethatbothteacherandstudent are awareof powerand its outcome.A low degreeof sharedperceptionsmay contributeto ineffectivecommunicationbetweentheteacherandstudent.Shared perceptions,of course,donotguaranteeffectivecommunication.However,if the studentdoesntlikethetypeof poweremployedbytheteacherbutcanrecognizeit whenit is usedhe/shemaybeabletorespondappropriately.If thestudentcannot recognizethetypeof powercommunicatedbytheteacher,he/sheis morelikelyto respondinappropriately.The key is to determineif studentsand teachershave sharedperceptionsaboutthekindsof poweremployedin a classroom.If this is determinedthenbothteachersandstudentscanbetaughtwhat typesof power producecertainoutcomes(i.e.,learning).