Can Verbally Aggressive Messages in the Instructor-Student Relationship be Constructive?

How instructors communicate with their students impacts their students\u27 instructional attitudes, motivations, and behaviors. Verbal aggression in the classroom often leads to negative instructional and relational outcomes (Infante, 1995; Myers, 2001; Myers \u26 Knox, 2000; Myers \u26 Rocca, 2001). This study investigated whether verbally aggressive messages in the instructor-student relationship could be constructive. Participants answered questions that included how instructors use verbally aggressive messages in the classroom, whether students could identify any positive outcomes from those verbally aggressive messages, and whether students communicating verbally aggressively with their instructors had ever led to positive outcomes. Findings confirm that some instructors use verbally aggressive messages regularly (while some instructors never use verbally aggressive messages). Students also report that the use of verbal aggression in the classroom, both by instructors and by students, have led to positive outcomes