Perceived teacher confirmation - The development and validation of an instrument and two studies of the relationship to cognitive and affective learning

This article reports an initial attempt to operationalize perceived teacher confirmation in behavioral terms and to explore relationships among percei ved teacher confirmation, cognitive learning, and affective learning. Resul ts for 2 samples (N = 446; N = 303) indicate that the final 16-item version of the Teacher Confirmation scale (TCS) is valid and reliable. Confirmator y factor analysis revealed that teacher confirmation is best represented by a 3-factor solution: (a) teachers' response to students' questions-comment s, (b) demonstrated interest in students and in their learning, and (c) tea ching style. Results also indicate that teacher confirmation plays a signif icant role in college students' cognitive anti affective learning. For Samp le 1, confirmation uniquely explained 18% of the variance in cognitive lear ning and 30% of the variance in affective learning, after controlling for d emographic variables and relevance of assignments. For Sample 2, confirmati on uniquely explained 17.6% of the variance in cognitive learning and 31% o f the variance in affective learning, after controlling for the same variab les. Structural equation modeling revealed strong, significant paths betwee n confirmation and affective learning and between affective and cognitive l eaning. The study revealed a large, significant. indirect effect of teacher confirmation on cognitive learning, suggesting that affective learning ser ves as a mediating variable between teacher confirmation and cognitive lear ning. A multiple groups comparison demonstrated that the structural model w as invariant for the 2 samples,