Eficácia Comunicacional dos Docentes do Ensino Superior: Evidência Confirmatória do Construto

This paper aims at showing confirmatory evidence of the instrument for measuring communication effectiveness of university teachers. 131 university teachers and 87 students described the behaviors of a former teacher, and gave him/her a global score for communication effectiveness. The findings are as follow: a) the four factor model (empathetic behavior; pedagogical conscientiousness; courtesy; "just reading of the texts") fits well the data, although it seems more desirable to divide the first factor into two dimensions (supporting behavior, communication facilitation); b) the five dimensions explain about 80% of the global effectiveness score; c) both students and teachers value greatly all behaviors, although empathetic behavior is more valued by students than by teachers, with the latter valuing the pedagogical conscientiousness more. In general, the instrument reveals good psychometric properties and highlights some avenues for future research in the domain of quality in higher education.