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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
published: 21 October 2021
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.767008
Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 1October 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 767008
Edited by:
Ali Derakhshan,
Golestan University, Iran
Reviewed by:
Ehsan Namaziandost,
Islamic Azad University of
Shahrekord, Iran
Jie Ding,
Luoyang Normal University, China
*Correspondence:
Ping Yan
yanping20200202@163.com
Specialty section:
This article was submitted to
Educational Psychology,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Psychology
Received: 30 August 2021
Accepted: 20 September 2021
Published: 21 October 2021
Citation:
Yan P (2021) Chinese EFL Students’
Perceptions of Classroom Justice:
The Impact of Teachers’ Caring and
Immediacy.
Front. Psychol. 12:767008.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.767008
Chinese EFL Students’ Perceptions
of Classroom Justice: The Impact of
Teachers’ Caring and Immediacy
Ping Yan*
School of Foreign Languages, Henan University, Kaifeng, China
The correlation between students’ perceptions of three dimensions of classroom justice,
teacher immediacy, and teacher caring has been found important since it can provide a
learning ambiance for students in which they can enthusiastically learn a new language.
To find out this relationship, the present study has strived to probe into the interplay
between the aforementioned variables and to see whether teacher caring and teacher
immediacy can predict students’ perception of justice. In so doing, the participants of
this study were 1,178 Chinese EFL students of various ages and education levels. Three
instruments were utilized in this study to perceive the students’ perception of classroom
justice, teacher immediacy, and teacher caring. To collect the data, these instruments
were distributed through an online survey software called Wenjuanxing (Questionnaire
Star). Results demonstrated that there was a positive association among these three
variables, and utilizing SEM analyses, it was found that both teacher immediacy
and teacher caring predict students’ perception of classroom justice that implies
teachers who are found to be more caring and give appropriate verbal and non-verbal
immediacy where needed, are perceived to change the students’ understanding of the
classroom justice to a positive attitude. Finally, the results of this study were discussed
regarding previous findings, and accordingly, some implications were put forward in the
EFL context.
Keywords: classroom justice, teachers’ caring, teachers’ immediacy, English as a foreign language (EFL),
students’ perception
INTRODUCTION
Teachers without a shadow of a doubt are said to be one of the most important stakeholders
particularly in the English as foreign/second language contexts and by whom students’ perception
of justice and engagement are highly impacted (Pishghadam et al., 2019). It was positive psychology
that paves the way to think of the teacher-student relationship as a humanistic concept and it has
been claimed that the way students are treated in the classroom affects their learning process.
Furthermore, in order to enhance teacher quality, some strategies should be implemented to
heighten students’ passion and cause them to actively engage in the activities (MacIntyre and
Mercer, 2014). Students’ perception of classroom justice is of paramount importance as well.
As it was claimed by Ciuladiene and Raˇ
celyte (2016), three types of justice can be dealt with
considering the educational context. Distributive justice refers to the grades which are received
by the students and the amount to which students attract their teachers’ attention. The second
Yan Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Justice
category of justice is procedural justice which incorporates how
students’ homework is evaluated, what methods are used by the
teacher to manipulate the class, and the strategies applied in the
class for students’ behavior to be controlled. The third category
of justice in the classroom is instructional justice. It is concerned
with how much students are treated reverently and courteously
by the teachers, and if the information can be clearly conveyed to
the students by the teacher.
Another point that can be emphasized is teacher care and
teacher immediacy through which worthwhile engagement can
be created. Teacher care as a strategy falls under the category of
teacher clarity in that the clearer the teacher’s words, teaching
methods, and examples are, the higher the comprehension and
engagement would be and accordingly, it builds up an excellent
teacher-student rapport. Teacher immediacy is described as a
collection of non-verbal and verbal strategies and behaviors
that are given by the teachers to generate a sense of closeness
with the students (Cakir, 2015; Xie and Derakhshan, 2021).
Moreover, studies show that teacher clarity and immediacy
are interconnected; however, their functions are a bit different
(Titsworth et al., 2015). They are at alteration since teacher clarity
causes cognitive enthusiasm and teacher immediacy provokes
emotional passion (Mazer, 2013). Both teachers’ caring and
teachers’ immediacy are relevant to positive psychology in which
the focus puts on how individuals can thrive and be happier,
concentrating on positive emotions like hope, enthusiasm,
resilience, positivity, and so forth rather than negative feelings
(Dewaele, 2015; MacIntyre et al., 2019) which means when
students are behaved fairly in the class by their teachers through
being given care as well as verbal and non-verbal immediacy,
it boosts students’ spirits and makes them feel better about
themselves. The current study has stressed the predictive impact
of teachers’ caring and immediacy on students’ perception of
justice. It is of great importance that how students are treated
in the class shapes their viewpoints about the classroom and it
strongly impacts teachers themselves; therefore, the association
among these three variables has been dealt with in this study.
It differs from the previous studies in two aspects. Firstly, even
though knowing the correlation among students’ perception of
justice, teacher caring, and teacher immediacy reveals benefits
that can be practiced by teachers to have a nice learning
environment, reviewing the relevant studies presented that no
experimental study has tested the concurrent effects of these
three variables so far. For instance, a study carried out by Liu
(2021) showed that students’ motivation is positively impacted by
teacher immediacy. Despite the fact that it was a comprehensive
study, just one of the variables in the present study was used
there. Another example that can be taken into account is a
study carried out by Zheng (2021) in which five other variables
were dealt with: teachers’ clarity, immediacy, credibility, students’
motivation, and students’ engagement. Therefore, these three
variables in the current study have not been analyzed in previous
studies. Secondly, this study has been conducted in China which
is another factor that makes it different from the previous studies.
In an effort to find the relationship between these three variables,
the author in the present research made an endeavor to answer
the next two research questions:
1. Are there any significant relationships between Chinese EFL
teachers’ caring, immediacy, and their students’ perceptions of
classroom justice?
2. Do Chinese EFL teachers’ caring and immediacy significantly
predict their students’ perceptions of classroom justice?
BACKGROUND
Classroom Justice
The Importance of Justice in Life and in Educational
Contexts
Justice is of great importance in life; it can be seen in political
sciences, social sciences, and organizational behaviors in society.
Other factors are related to justice in society and it is why it
attracted much attention (Cropanzano and Greenberg, 1997).
Regarding the educational contexts, many famous people have
established the social psychology theory of justice. It has
been discovered that many student variables are impacted by
students’ perception of classroom justice such as the students’
level of motivation, academic aims, engagement, the teacher-
student relationship, both behavioral and emotional reactions,
showing enthusiasm in the subjects, the amount of willingness
to talk, how they feel about their teacher, and cognitive
learning. Positive equity, inspiration, and affective learning
are decidedly anticipated by perceptions (Chory-Assad, 2002),
and they positively affect accomplishment (Burns and DiPaola,
2013). Many studies of justice in the instructional context
have concentrated on the students’ perceptions of classroom
justice that are related to their behavioral/affective answers and
academic results (Rasooli et al., 2018). Nonetheless, how teachers
identify their own justice in different aspects of the classroom is
critical for creating and keeping a just classroom environment
(Grazia et al., 2020). Students’ perception of unfairness in the
context of the class can cause negative behavior, fight, dishonesty,
anger, and struggle increase as shown by Ciuladiene and Raˇ
celyte
(2016). This study discovered students who experience unjust
teacher behavior in the learning contexts. It was reported by
the students in the mentioned study that they experienced
interactional injustice more often than experiencing distributive
or procedural injustice.
Distributive Justice
Justice can be categorized into three categories: distributive,
procedural, and interactional justice. Distributive justice is
described as an understanding of fairness regarding distributing
outcomes. Three following principles can explicate this type
of justice more: need (how the outcome is distributed when
one expects or needs something), equity (how the outcome
is distributed according to one’s diligence, contribution, and
performance), and equality (how equally the outcome among
people are distributed) (Deutsch, 1975). School was portrayed
by Dalbert and Stoeber (2006) as a space where students
face significant distribution choices. Distributive equity can be
dissected regarding the grades which are gotten by various
students and with the point that who stands out enough to be
noticed by the teacher (Chory-Assad and Paulsel, 2004).
Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 2October 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 767008
Yan Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Justice
Procedural Justice
Procedural justice refers to the understanding of fairness
in terms of utilized measures and policies so as to make
allocation decisions. This justice is perceived to be kept when
the measures are judged to be fair such as “bias dominance
principal,” recognized on satisfactory and accurate information
such as “accuracy principle,” engaged regularly across time and
individuals such as “consistency principle,” adaptable such as
“correctability principle,” considering all individuals’ concerns
who are engaged such as “voice principle,” resting on the
predominant ethical and moral values such as “ethicality
principle”, enacted clearly and with clarity such as “transparency
principle,” and are rational “reasonableness principle” (Leventhal,
1980; Kazemi and Törnblom, 2008; Rasooli et al., 2019).
Interactional and procedural fairness are inspected in the
instructive contexts as well. It was mentioned by Chory-Assad
(2007) that there are three cycles in the instructional contexts,
regarding procedural equity. The main cycle incorporates the
manners in which homework assignments are evaluated, the
second includes techniques utilized by the teacher to run the
class, and the third deals with the arrangements used to control
the students’ conduct. Fair techniques that can be used to lead
the class are clarified in Horan et al. (2010). Nine classifications
were grouped thinking about procedural unfairness. Just as
evaluating techniques, it is additionally worried about different
issues, for example, cosmetics/late arrangements, planning, data
for tests, criticism, teachers’ mistakes, not finishing promises,
class methods, and not upholding strategies. This idea was upheld
by Houston and Bettencourt (1999) that upheld the idea that
justice manages activities in regards to the clearness and precision
of the information offered to the students with respect to the class
and tests.
Interactional Justice
Interactional justice that is the third classification of
organizational justice, pertains to the understanding of fairness
in conveying information and interpersonal relationships,
when individuals perceive to be in a friendly atmosphere such as
“caring principle,” behaved reverentially such as respect principle,
and with dignity such as “propriety principle,” and when
information is transferred to them in an appropriate manner
such as “timeliness principle,” sincerely such as “truthfulness
principle,” and according to sufficient and rational clarifications
such as “adequacy/justification principle” (Greenberg, 1993;
Colquitt, 2001; Rasooli et al., 2019). Out of the three dimensions,
distributive justice was the one which was said to be the most
crucially important from the teacher’s point of view which can be
seen in different forms, from grading, giving feedback to praising
and providing students with opportunities. Interactional equity
alludes to the justice and quality of interpersonal treatment that
people are given when strategies are cultivated.
As indicated by Chory-Assad (2002), interactional equity
incorporates two elements. The principal thing is passing on data
obviously. The subsequent one is concerned with dignity and
reverence. In the classroom, interactional equity is concerned
with the degree to which educators connect with their students
politely, honorably, and straightforwardly. Assessments of the
teacher’s interactional equity concern when the educator care
about students’ perspectives, pays attention to their interests and
interacts in a decent way with them Chory-Assad and Paulsel
(2004). Horan and associates’ examination recommended that
interactional equity issues included harshness/discourteousness,
expressing or suggesting ineptitude, racist and biased comments,
singling out understudies, blaming students for bad behavior, and
teacher affecting intellectually (Estaji and Zhaleh, 2021).
Teacher Caring
Teacher care was first introduced by Noddings (1984) which
refers to the amount of empathy shared and the openness in
face of other people’s needs. Likewise, the same goes for the
educational contexts (Gasser et al., 2018). Students’ well-being,
feeling revered, the amount of being engaged during the class,
the level of self-esteem, and their performance are stimulated
when teachers show care (Derakhshan et al., 2019). In a study
conducted by Liu et al. (2021), the relationship between teacher
support, which can be regarded as a part of teachers’ caring,
and creative self-efficacy with students’ autonomous motivation
and achievement motivation was studied in China. It has been
found that students’ motivation in academic contexts was affected
by teachers’ support; however, no considerable association was
discovered between teachers’ support and students’ creative self-
efficacy. Although this study was of great importance due to
the variables analyzed, the present study can be noticeable since
it has put forward three main variables, especially teachers’
caring which can be perceived as an umbrella term for teacher
support. Teachers’ caring is a substantial part of the educational
context since it causes students to feel revered and they are
more inclined to accept the classroom values in this way. When
classroom values are respected by the students, they are more
likely to learn the materials in a better way. It was claimed
that caring about others makes one care about himself as well
(Ryan and Deci, 2000; Ware, 2006). As indicated by Mayeroff
(1971), caring is an interaction through which one becomes more
acquainted with someone else, thinking about earlier conduct,
patience, truthfulness, quietude, and dependence. Mayeroff
(1971) suggests that caring is not necessarily a reciprocal
act. Similarly, Bluestein (1991) perceives that a relationship
comprises of specific jobs that may not include corresponding
practices. For example, the relationship between instructors and
students can be characterized by a role that the instructor should
really focus on students as his responsibility in his expert work.
Albeit caring has been related to progress, secondary school
students’ understanding is restricted, and it is perhaps because
of the way that their theoretical reasoning has not been formed at
this point. It was accentuated in past examinations that students
were almost certain to remain in school when they saw educators
as just (Knesting, 2008). Instructor caring was shown by practices
that worked on students’ gifts, support their confidence, value
their thoughts, and revere them as people. Likewise, Geary
(1988) suggested that school achievement was facilitated by an
instructor who is caring, approachable, compatible, encouraging,
considerate, a decent audience, and funny. In a thorough report,
Coburn and Nelson (1989) studied around 300 Native-American
secondary school students in Washington, Montana, Oregon,
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Yan Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Justice
and Idaho. These students portrayed efficacious teachers as
gracious, mindful, listening altogether, showing an uplifting
perspective, giving assistance promptly, reassuring, agreeable,
having the students engaged in activities, and giving students
positive feedback.
In addition, Coley (1995) investigated information from the
National Center for Education Statistics to perceive factors that
brought about the drop-out rate in the United States. It was
accounted for that about 43% of students surrendered school
since they loathed school; under 40% told that getting grades that
were not palatable was the reason; over 25% expressed there was a
phony connection between their instructors and them, and about
25% could not feel a sense of having a place at school.
Teacher Immediacy
Teacher Immediacy is conceptualized as a range of behaviors
such as giving a smile, making eye contact, and close premixes
which help the communicators to form a sense of physical
and psychological closeness (Richmond et al., 2008). Verbal
immediacy can be exemplified in this way: when students are
asked about their ideas, they are asked to be involved in a friendly
conversation, and teachers use a great sense of humor. Non-
verbal immediacy, on the other hand, refers to teachers smiling,
making eye contact, and using relaxing postures (Wendt and
Courduff, 2018). It has been shown that students’ empowerment
and engagement can be enhanced through teacher immediacy,
their anxiety decreases, and their attention is sustained (Bolkan,
2017). In a study conducted by Derakhshan (2021) both language
teachers’ non-verbal immediacy and credibility have been found
to be predictors of Turkman students’ academic engagement.
Gholamrezaee and Ghanizadeh (2018) also tested how students’
self-actualization, self-esteem, stress-control, cognitive learning,
and emotional exhaustion have been affected by EFL teachers’
immediacy. It has been discovered through the SEM analysis that
all the constructs relevant to the students, particularly students’
self-actualization were positively impacted by teacher immediacy.
Similarly, according to Sheybani (2019), students’ willingness
to communicate was significantly and positively influenced by
teachers’ verbal and non-verbal immediacy.
Teacher immediacy can be exemplified in different forms
such as using out-of-the class examples and experiences so as
to create a sense of closeness and cause students to fit in with a
new language which is actually viewed as a new culture. Asking
questions and encouraging students to talk that causes them to
start talking in a foreign/second language regardless of all the
language barriers which can be experienced while learning a new
one. Using humor in class brings about many advantages, out
of which is establishing a friendly atmosphere in which students
are not horrified by speaking even if they are panic-stricken.
Addressing students by name is another behavior that can be
used by the teacher to increase a sense of value in students and
as a result, they may feel they have the bravery to start talking
due to the fact that they may make some mistakes. Parsing
students’ work, actions, or comments falls under the category
of verbal immediacy that has been found to play a paramount
role in students’ well-being and their academic achievements.
Considering both types of teacher immediacy, the following
examples are perceived as non-verbal immediacy. Sitting behind
the desk while teaching is said to be monotonous for students
and they may lose concentration while their teacher gets stuck
at his desk. Smiling at individual students in the class is another
construct that can be practiced by teachers if they are inclined
to build up a nice rapport with the students. Having a very tense
body position, additionally, causes a stressful situation and makes
students feel fearful to be engaged in the activities.
Positive Psychology
A new era of positive psychology happened in the educational
context when MacIntyre and Gregersen (2012) put emphasis
on it. Therefore, researchers’ concentration was shifted from
negative emotions such as anxiety and boredom (Marcos-Llinás
and Garau, 2009; Pawlak et al., 2020; Derakhshan et al., 2021)
to both negative and positive emotions (Kruk, 2021) that can be
found in the learning and teaching process. It was highlighted
in applied positive psychology that both negative and positive
emotions are interwoven, and they cannot be separated from each
other in many contexts and sometimes they are complementary
(MacIntyre and Gregersen, 2012; Wang et al., 2021). Positive
emotions have been said to add more meaning and enjoyment to
the process of learning, and it causes students to be more resilient
when encountering challenging issues in the instructional context
(Gregersen, 2013).
Positive psychology dramatically throve in 2016 after a
thorough book published by MacIntyre et al. (2016). In their
book, the authors noted that four main contributions have been
made by positive psychology that impacted L2 education. The
first one emphasized the movement from negative emotions to
positive emotions which means emotions will play a pivotal role
in L2 educational contexts, and both teachers and the educational
achievements of the students (Li, 2020). The second noticeable
influence of positive psychology in instructional contexts is
the model which was entitled as “model of character strength”
(Park et al., 2004). Six categories of characters are found to
have a paramount impact on personal development: fairness,
superiority, humanity, moderation, bravery, and wisdom. When
it comes to an educational concept, provided that these
characteristics are strengthened by teachers and learners, they
can thrive (MacIntyre, 2021). The third influence is the
movement from PERMA to EMPATICS to perceive well-
being within positive psychology (Oxford, 2016). It was
Seligman (2011) who devised the PERMA model l, which is a
controversial concept, stands for Positive emotions, Engagement,
Relationships, Meaning in life, and Accomplishment. According
to the model raised, in order to find meaning in life, a strong
positive connection should be among these factors resulting
in individuals’ well-being (Mercer and Gregersen, 2020). After
that, this model was expanded by Oxford (2016, p. 10) which
was called: EMPATHICS, incorporating the nine components
of “(1) Emotion and empathy, (2) Meaning and motivation,
(3) Perseverance, including hope, resilience, and optimism, (4)
Agency and autonomy, (5) Time, (6) Hardiness and habits
of mind, (7) Intelligences, (8) Character strengths, and (9)
Self factors self-verification, self-esteem, self-concept, and self-
efficacy.” As indicated by Oxford (2016) many of these factors
Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 4October 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 767008
Yan Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Justice
such as empathy and resilience have not been studied by
researchers yet which means they can be utilized for further
research. The fourth influence of positive psychology in L2
contexts is flow theory (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) that is the extent
to which one is so immersed in doing tasks that he forgets about
time. Reference as a result, students’ L2 learning attainments, and
success are highly influenced by students’ experiencing flow.
It has been said that students’ perceptions of classroom justice
have a positive correlation with both teacher caring and teacher
immediacy. It is perceived by the students as fair when they
are treated as follows: being given enough attention by their
teachers, being provided with feedback on one’s individual work,
using comments on papers or oral discussions, being addressed
by their first name, and being asked some questions, and being
encouraged to talk which fall under the category of verbal
immediacy. On the other hand, using a dull voice when talking
to class, sitting on a desk or in a chair while teaching, and having
a very tense body position while talking to the class that falls
under the category of non-verbal teacher immediacy are viewed
as unfair by the students. In terms of teacher caring, when a
teacher is understanding and sympathetic, they are viewed as
fair teachers by the students. As has been revealed by Greenier
et al. (2021), there is a positive correlation between teachers’
psychological well-being and their work engagement. Therefore,
when a teacher feels good about his personal and working life, he
can be actively engaged in what he does and as a consequence,
they energize students to be involved in the activities.
METHODS
Participants’ Demographic Information
In this study, the final 1,178 participants were from four
universities in Henan province, namely Henan University,
Henan Polytechnic University, Zhengzhou University of
Aeronautics and Huanghuai University. To maximize the
variation of the sample that enhances the generalizability of
the outcomes, participants were from more than 15 majors
including Chinese literature, French language, Law, Philosophy,
Chemistry, Biological Sciences, Accounting, etc. They were
heterogeneous in terms of gender, with 342 (29.03%) male and
830 (70.46%) female, six participants (0.51%) preferred not to
reveal their gender identity. In the sample, participants were
of different levels of education, with 266 (22.58%) freshmen,
838 (71.14%) sophomores, 56 (4.75%) juniors, and 18 (1.53)
seniors. They were opted for based on random sampling. The
respondents who were reassured that their information would
be kept secret and be utilized only for research purposes signed
their consent agreement before they participated in this survey.
Instruments
Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Justice
The present study drew on Chory-Assad and Paulsel’s (2004)
scale to evaluate students’ comprehension of classroom justice. It
includes distributive justice that contains two parts with 14 items
on which students were expected to evaluate the fairness of the
grades given in a course. It also encompasses procedural justice
including 17 items on which students were supposed to evaluate
teachers’ policies and schedules, and it also contains interactional
justice including 8 items on which students were expected to
evaluate teachers’ interpersonal relationship with their students.
Three examples for the above instruments are, respectively, as
follows: students’ grades on the last exam were compared to the
ones of their classmates; how the teacher coordinates the class
discussions, and the way students are treated by their teachers.
All the aforementioned instruments were supposed to be rated
on a 5-point Likert Scale ranging from extremely unfair (1) to
extremely fair (5).
Teachers’ Caring
The other instrument used in this study was teacher caring
developed and validated by Koehn and Crowell (1996). The items
were introduced in a standard way and each item included a
seven-step continuum for the response. Students were supposed
to rate the items and indicate their feeling about their current
teacher in the following way: Numbers 1 and 7 showing a very
strong feeling, numbers 2 and 6 indicating a strong feeling,
numbers 3 and 5 expressing a fairly weak feeling, and number
4 showing the students are undecided.
Teachers’ Immediacy
The subsequent instrument estimated students’ impression of
teacher immediacy developed by Richmond et al. (1987), featured
two parts, the first part that evaluated teachers’ verbal immediacy
includes 17 items, and the second part that evaluated teachers’
non-verbal immediacy consists of five items. Students were
supposed to rate the items on a 5-point Likert Scale ranging from
Never (0) to almost always (4).
Data Collection Procedure
The questionnaires mentioned above consists of three sections
and 71 items in total. To assure the accurate understanding of
the questions and credibility of responses, all the instructions and
items were conducted in Chinese. A free online survey platform
called Wenjuanxing (Questionnaire Star) was utilized to generate
the electronic questionnaire.
The link of questionnaire was sent to English teachers and
tutors of above mentioned four universities through Wechat, and
then was sent to class Wechat group. Students may feel free to fill
the questionnaire if they were willing to participate in the survey.
The survey was conducted between July 21 and July 22. The
final 1,178 participants were of different levels of education, with
266 (22.58%) freshman, 838 (71.14%) sophomore, 56(4.75%)
junior, and 18 (1.53) senior. They were from different colleges,
covering more than 15 majors. The respondents who were
reassured that their information would be kept secret and be
utilized only for research purposes gave consent as the first item
of electronic questionnaire. Their personal information would
remain confidential.
Data Analysis
In the present study, to find the relationship between the students’
perception of classroom justice, teacher caring, and teacher
immediacy, Pearson correlation was utilized which showed
that all the sub-constructs of classroom justice are positively
Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 5October 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 767008
Yan Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Justice
correlated with both teachers’ caring and immediacy. Likewise,
SEM analysis was used to find if Chinese EFL teachers’ caring
and immediacy significantly predict their students’ perceptions
of classroom justice. It has been shown that students’ perceptions
of classroom justice are significantly predicted by both Chinese
EFL teachers’ caring and immediacy.
RESULTS
Table 1 illuminates the normality of the data, utilizing
Kolmogorov-Smirnov test.
The results of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test indicated that
the data are normally distributed across all variables and
parametric statistics can be utilized. Table 2 displays descriptive
statistics of Chinese EFL teachers’ caring, immediacy, and their
students’ perceptions of classroom justice including the number
of participants, the mean, and the standard deviation.
As Table 2 shows, 1,178 students participated in the present
study. Besides, it was found that classroom justice has a
mean score of 170.96, teachers’ caring has a mean score of
52.10, and teachers’ immediacy has a mean score of 60.16.
Table 3 summarizes the information obtained from Cronbach
alpha analyses.
TABLE 1 | The results of K-S test.
Kolmogorov-Smirnova
Statistic df Sig.
Classroom justice 0.08 1,178 0.09
Teachers’ caring 0.09 1,178 0.08
Teachers’ immediacy 0.06 1,178 0.11
aLilliefors significance correction.
TABLE 2 | Descriptive statistics of the variables of the study.
NMinimum Maximum Mean SD
Classroom justice 1,178 66 195 170.96 15.50
Teachers’ caring 1,178 31 70 52.10 8.08
Teachers’ immediacy 1,178 13 88 60.16 10.35
TABLE 3 | Results of Cronbach alpha indexes.
Scale Subscales Cronbach alpha
Teachers’ caring 0.82
Distributive1 0.85
Classroom justice Distributive2 0.91
Procedural 0.95
Interactional 0.89
Overall justice 0.96
Verbal 0.94
Teachers’ immediacy Non-verbal 0.70
Overall immediacy 0.94
As can be seen, the utilized questionnaires gained acceptable
indexes of Cronbach alpha as a whole as well as in their subscales.
To answer the first research question, Pearson correlation
was employed. Table 4 shows the results of Pearson correlation
between overall EFL teachers’ caring, immediacy, and their
students’ perceptions of classroom justice.
As it can be seen in Table 4, there are positive significant
relationships between overall teachers’ caring and students’
perceptions of classroom justice (r=0.56, n=1,178, p=0.000,
α=0.01) and their immediacy (r=0.48, n=1,178, p=0.000,
α=0.01). Moreover, there is a positive significant relationship
between overall teacher immediacy and students’ perceptions of
classroom justice (r=0.50, n=1,178, p=0.000, α=0.01).
Table 5 shows the results of the Pearson correlation between
all sub-constructs students’ perceptions of classroom justice and
overall teachers’ caring.
As Table 5 demonstrates, there are positive significant
relationships between all sub-constructs students’ perceptions
of classroom justice and overall teachers’ caring: Distributive1
(r=0.47, n=1,178, p=0.000, α=0.01), Distributive2 (r=0.50,
n=1,178, p=0.000, α=0.01), Procedural (r=0.55, n=1,178,
p=0.000, α=0.01), Interactional (r=0.56, n=1,178, p=0.000,
α=0.01).
Table 6 shows the results of Pearson correlation between all
sub-constructs students’ perceptions of classroom justice and
overall teachers’ immediacy.
As Table 6 demonstrates, there are positive significant
relationships between all sub-constructs students’ perceptions of
classroom justice and verbal immediacy: Distributive1 (r=0.42,
n=1,178, p=0.000, α=0.01), Distributive2 (r=0.44, n=1,178,
p=0.000, α=0.01), Procedural (r=0.49, n=1,178, p=0.000,
TABLE 4 | Results of Pearson correlation between overall EFL teachers’ caring,
immediacy, and their students’ perceptions of classroom justice.
Justice Caring Immediacy
Justice Pearson correlation 1
Sig. (2-tailed)
N1,178
Caring Pearson correlation 0.56** 1
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000
N1,178 1,178
Immediacy Pearson correlation 0.50** 0.48** 1
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000
N1,178 1,178 1,178
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
TABLE 5 | Results of Pearson correlation between all sub-constructs students’
perceptions of classroom justice and overall teachers’ caring.
Distributive1 Distributive2 Procedural Interactional
Teachers’ caring 0.47** 0.50** 0.55** 0.56**
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 6October 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 767008
Yan Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Justice
TABLE 6 | Results of Pearson correlation between all sub-constructs students’
perceptions of classroom justice and overall teachers’ immediacy.
Distributive1 Distributive2 Procedural Interactional
Verbal 0.42** 0.44** 0.49** 0.50**
Non-verbal 0.36 0.36 0.40 0.41
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
α=0.01), Interactional (r=0.50, n=1,178, p=0.000, α=0.01).
Furthermore, there are positive significant relationship between
all sub-constructs students’ perceptions of classroom justice and
non-verbal immediacy: Distributive1 (r=0.36, n=1,178, p=
0.000, α=0.01), Distributive2 (r=0.36, n=1,178, p=0.000, α
=0.01), Procedural (r=0.40, n=1,178, p=0.000, α=0.01),
Interactional (r=0.41, n=1,178, p=0.000, α=0.01).
To address the second research question, SEM was used
through Amos 24. For the qualities of the causal connections
among the segments to be checked, the normalized estimates
were analyzed. As shown in Figure 1, the model of the
interrelationships among factors.
As indicated in Figure 1, both teachers’ immediacy (β=
0.30, p<0.05) and teachers’ caring (β=0.42, p<0.05)
are positive significant predictors of students’ perceptions
of classroom justice. Finally, teachers’ immediacy correlated
positively and significantly with their caring (β=0.41,
p<0.05).
For the model fit to be checked, goodness of fit indices was
utilized. Goodness of fit indices can be visible in Table 7. In
this study, χ2/df, GFI, CFI, and RMSEA were employed. In
order to have a fit model, χ2/df is required to be <3, GFI CFI,
and NFI is required to be above 0.90, and RMSEA is required
to be <0.08.
Table 7 delineates that all the integrity of fit indices can run
inside the satisfactory level. Thus, the model had a reasonable
level of validity.
DISCUSSION
The current study aimed to probe into a predictive role of
EFL teachers’ caring and teachers’ immediacy in students’
perception of classroom justice that was done in China. Some
important findings were put forward through this research.
Among the variables, classroom justice has the highest mean,
while teachers’ caring obtained the lowest mean. As can be
implied, the highest correlation is ascribed to teachers’ caring
and students’ perception of classroom justice. The second
highest correlation can be seen between teachers’ immediacy
and students’ perception of classroom justice. It is also found
that the relationship between all the sub-constructs of classroom
justice is positive and out of which interactional justice reached
the highest (r=0.56, p=0.000). Considering all the sub-
factors of classroom justice, it can be perceived that all the sub-
constructs including distributive, procedural, and instructional
justice are positively correlated with the sub-constructs of
teachers’ immediacy including verbal immediacy and non-
verbal immediacy, among which the highest relationship can
be found between instructional justice and verbal immediacy.
It implies that teachers’ caring and teachers’ immediacy have
a pivotal impact on how students perceive classroom justice.
If the students are supported and are given verbal and non-
verbal immediacy, their perception of classroom justice will
meaningfully enhance. Last but not least, the SEM analysis
clearly showed that both teachers’ immediacy and teachers’ caring
are positive significant predictors of students’ perceptions of
classroom justice.
The current study aimed to test a predictive role of teacher
immediacy and teacher care in Chinese students’ perception of
justice. The importance of three variables, students’ perception
of classroom justice, teacher immediacy, and teacher caring as
well as the relationship among the variables have been discussed.
As indicted by Pishghadam et al. (2019) productive language
teaching is something beyond just teaching the subject-matter
and conveying information, yet, the psychological aspect of
teaching in the educational area should be emphasized. Since
teachers and students communicate well in a friendly learning
ambiance, it seems essential that a nice rapport be shaped
(Xie and Derakhshan, 2021). The results revealed that these
three variables were positively correlated. Classroom justice is
perceived as positive through students’ eyes provided that they
are treated with care and also with appropriate verbal and non-
verbal immediacy by their teachers.
With regard to the first research question of this study,
the results of correlational analyses showed that there is a
significant positive correlation, first, between teacher immediacy
and students’ perception of classroom justice, second, between
teacher caring and students’ perception of classroom justice.
Likewise, regarding the second research question, both teachers’
immediacy and teachers’ caring have been found to be the
predictors of students’ perception of classroom justice by
employing SEM analysis. It can be noted that this finding was
in line with the outcomes of Liu (2021) study underscoring the
considerable role of teacher verbal and non-verbal immediacy
on students’ motivation and it was also consistent with Zheng
(2021) emphasizing the impact of teacher clarity, immediacy, and
credibility on students’ motivation and classroom engagement
even though students’ perception of justice was not a variable
in the above studies and instead, students’ motivation and
engagement were analyzed. Additionally, the findings of the
current research are somewhat consistent with the following
Derakhshan’s (2021) in which it has been found that Turkman
students’ academic engagement is highly impacted by teachers’
verbal and non-verbal immediacy. Alternatively, Gholamrezaee
and Ghanizadeh (2018) found that students’ constructs such
as self-esteem and self-actualization are influenced by teachers’
immediacy. Knesting’s (2008) findings provide support for the
present study in that it highlights how students’ confidence,
talent, and values are affected positively when they are treated
justly by their teachers. Besides, in line with what Estaji
and Zhaleh (2021) reported, the results of the present study
corroborate that classroom justice plays a crucial role in the
teachers’ instructional practice.
Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 7October 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 767008
Yan Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Justice
FIGURE 1 | The model of the interrelationships among variables.
CONCLUSION
As it has been shown in the current study, teacher caring,
teacher immediacy, and students’ perception of classroom justice
are positively correlated. Another result that was revealed in
this study was that teacher caring and teacher immediacy
predict students’ perception of classroom justice. Two groups
incorporating teacher educators and teachers themselves can
be impacted by the results of this study. Without a shadow
of a doubt, teachers should be equipped with theoretical and
pedagogical knowledge as it empathetically affects teachers’
physical and mental well-being (Dewaele and Dewaele, 2020).
Therefore, in this regard, the results of this study give credence
to teacher educators who are supposed to provide teachers
with such knowledge discussed above. Moreover, teaching is
not a one-dimensional job that is not demanding; it is a
multidimensional career that takes perseverance and mental
energy to create a learning context in which students can reach
Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 8October 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 767008
Yan Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Justice
TABLE 7 | Goodness of fit indices.
X2/df GFI CFI NFI RMSEA
Acceptable fit <3>0.90 >0.90 >0.90 <0.08
Model 2.15 0.94 0.95 0.93 0.07
their pinnacle and high academic achievements can be achieved.
Thus, teachers themselves are the second group that can benefit
from this study since they deserve to feel good both about
themselves and about their jobs. Working with students and
having struggled to make them feel satisfied with what they have
been taught and a learning context causes the teachers to feel
tension and stressed. To relieve the tension, teachers should feel
valued in order to boost their spirits, and it is not attainable
unless teachers will come to the belief that their class and the
way they teach and treat the students is perceived as fair in the
eye of the students. The following examples are the actions that
can be done by a teacher in the classroom so as to cause students
to have a positive perception of classroom justice; however, it
should be kept in mind that care should be taken to apply such
activities in class because students’ well-being in the class to a
great extent rests on the following activities that can be utilized
by the teachers:
•when a teacher makes a timely communication of his
expectations with students at the beginning of the semester;
•when he provides the students with sufficient and honest
information regarding the criteria that are employed in
grading them;
•when the students are graded based on their achievements;
•when equal attention and help are provided to both high and
low achievers in the class;
•when a teacher has a caring and supportive relationship
with students;
•when a teacher is sensitive to his students’ feelings, opinions,
ad rights;
•when students are adequately informed of the class attendance
policy if a topic has been taught incorrectly;
•when the teacher attempts to provide correct
information subsequently;
•when equal opportunities and time are set for the students to
participate in classroom discussions;
•when there is no favorite student in class to be treated
differently from others in class;
•when students are allowed to express their concerns about the
learning process.
The first limitation of this study that can be taken into
consideration is that this study was cross-sectional and
correlational; therefore, a longitudinal study can be implemented
to provide teachers with more examples in detail since these
characteristics for teachers help them create a living-learning
environment for students in which students are encouraged to
express themselves better and have a better understanding of
justice. Moreover, the collected data in this study drawn from
four comprehensive universities located in different cities in
Henan Province. Great proportion of the sample students were
from local areas and belonged to Han ethic group. The results of
this study were applicable to central part of China, but cannot be
blindly generalized to coastal areas or autonomous regions like
Tibet or Ningxia. Future studies may be conducted to include
more regions.
The second limitation is the amount of care and immediacy
may differ considering the time. When it is at the beginning
of the semester, students are more curious both about teachers’
characteristics and about the subject-matter. As time goes by,
they may get conditioned and habituated to the situation in
which they are engaged to do the activities, their perception
of classroom justice may change, and they may feel reluctant
to consider teachers’ caring and immediacy as positive since
they need to be given a variety of activities so as to feel
passionate about the learning process as time passes throughout
the semester. Thus, there is a difference between how students
feel about the class and their teacher at the beginning of the
semester and the one which will be felt throughout the semester.
In this regard, a longitudinal study appears of great importance.
Student caring and teachers’ willingness to teach better would
be the title of another future study in which the focus will be
shifted to students rather than teachers. The teacher-student
relationship is reciprocal where both teachers and students
should have enough enthusiasm to enhance this relationship
although it is said that students are more impacted by their
teachers and the way they are treated by their teachers in
the classroom is of paramount significance especially when it
comes to students’ progress. Because teachers are in need of
being cared for and being valued, students who are caring are
perceived as encouraging for their teachers since they cause them
to teach in an effective way. Another limitation of this study
is the age through which justice is perceived by students is of
great importance. It has been said that the older the students
are, the wider their horizon would be which leads to students
perceiving more and more about justice around them in the
teaching context. Therefore, the definition of justice is different,
from the prospect of various aging groups of students. Teenagers,
for instance, may consider not running eyes over all the students
equally as unfair, while adult students expect to be given enough
care, otherwise, it makes them feel humiliated. Another concern
can be the amount to which students are supposed to be given
both verbal and non-verbal immediacy and caring. It is not
proven that the more caring a teacher is, the more satisfied the
students are regarding the learning process. So, more studies can
be conducted in the future to find out the interplay of these
variables with other teacher-student interpersonal factors (see Xie
and Derakhshan, 2021).
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be
made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
ETHICS STATEMENT
The studies involving human participants were reviewed
and approved by Henan University Ethics Division. The
Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 9October 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 767008
Yan Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Justice
patients/participants provided their written informed consent to
participate in this study.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
PY conceptualized, designed research methodology, collected
data, analyzed data, and as well as independently drafted
the manuscript.
FUNDING
This study was supported by the Postgraduate Education
Innovation Project of Henan University: Xenophobia—A
discourse historical approach (Grant No. SYL20060127) and
the Young Scholar Program of Henan Province: Foreign
Language Education based on Virtual Reality Technology (Grant
No. 2019GGJS036).
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Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 11 October 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 767008
