Examining the Role of Self-Disclosure and Connectedness in the Process of Instructional Dissent: A Test of the Instructional Beliefs Model

The current study examined the relationship between student-to-student communicative behaviors and communication outcomes in the college classroom. The instructional beliefs model was used to examine student self-disclosures, student perceptions of connectedness, and student enactment of instructional dissent. Students (N = 351) completed questionnaires assessing their perceptions of other students' self-disclosures, classroom connectedness, and their own enactment of expressive, rhetorical, and vengeful dissent. Results of path analyses indicate that students' perceptions of classroom connectedness mediate the relationship between student self-disclosure and enactment of instructional dissent, particularly in the case of vengeful dissent. These results offer increased understanding of the ways in which student-to-student communication affects perceptual and communicative outcomes in the college classroom.