My expertise is in instructional and applied communication; my research advances theoretical understanding of classroom spaces while helping learners and instructors develop technical communication skills. This occurs across three specific areas:

(1) Instructional policies and classroom enforcement strategies - This work builds an understanding of how instructors balance authority and rapport in their framing and enforcement of messages that control, restrict, or regulate learners' behavior. I focus primarily on analyzing learners’ perceptions of such autonomy-restrictive behavior to help instructors understand why many of their attempts at persuasion and management may fail. Contrary to broader information policy efforts to control or restrict how information is communicated and disseminated, this research investigates communication and behavior in relation to individualized, micro-level issues like compliance-gaining, behavioral modification, and educational interventions. Currently, I am studying within-student effects of teacher strictness (the perceived inflexibility of a teacher). 

(2) Technical communication skill development for learners and teachers - My research in this area seeks to complement students' increasing technical knowledge and skills with pedagogy that trains them to communicate those abilities effectively (e.g., students / new employees with technical skills can help train and mentor other colleagues who may lack them). Future projects in this domain will explore how students’ motivational processes play a role in their communication skill development, primarily drawing on social cognitive theory and self-determination theory. My work in this area has also extended outside of the classroom through grants to study communication training for biomedical engineers and library programming. 

(3) The accessibility of research methods relevant to classroom, educational, and assessment data - Work in this domain is concerned with advocating and teaching others how to use empirical techniques that answer nuanced research questions and enhance analytic precision. One major thread involves the use of hierarchical linear modeling [HLM] to better account for the unique contextual features of educational data, particulary in higher education classrooms. Projects range across quantitative and qualitative interests, including tutorials for incorporating HLM into instructional data, reproducible code for exploratory and confirmatory factor analyes in R, and best practices for using Microsoft Teams to facilitate asynchronous, online focus groups.

Apart from research, I have an extensive background in course development and peer review instruction/techniques. I also serve the university as a RCR in-person facilitator. Please reach out through email of via Twitter (@TKFrey) if interested in collaborating!