Showing papers in "Communication Education in 2005"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the capacity of supportive communication reported as being received from friends and family to buffer the association between academic stress and health and found that emotional support was negatively associated with depression across levels of academic stress.
Abstract: Academic stress is associated with a variety of negative health outcomes, including depression and physical illness. The current study examined the capacity of supportive communication reported as being received from friends and family to buffer the association between academic stress and health. College students completed measures of academic stress, of supportive communication received (emotional and informational), and of health status (depression and symptoms of physical illness). Results indicated that the positive association between academic stress and depression decreased as informational support increased. In addition, emotional support was negatively associated with depression across levels of academic stress. The findings are discussed with respect to reducing negative health outcomes for individuals experiencing academic stress.
172 citations
TL;DR: This article explored relations between social network characteristics in an online graduate class and two learning outcomes: affective and cognitive learning, and found that both network prestige and network centrality were robust predictors of cognitive learning outcomes.
Abstract: This study explored relations between social network characteristics in an online graduate class and two learning outcomes: affective and cognitive learning. The social network analysis data were compiled by entering the number of one-to-one postings sent by each student to each other student in a course web site discussion space into a specially designed spreadsheet. Regression analysis revealed that both network prestige and network centrality were robust predictors of cognitive learning outcomes. Self-reported affective learning, however, was not related to network factors. Results illustrate the utility of social network analysis in understanding interaction and learning outcomes in online classes.
143 citations
TL;DR: This article explored the intercultural communication experiences of ethnic Chinese students in a New Zealand university classroom context and found that students from Chinese and other non-Western cultures often experienced difficulties in inter-cultural communication.
Abstract: This interpretive study explores the intercultural communication experiences of ethnic Chinese students in a New Zealand university classroom context. In aspiring to collaborative relationships with their New Zealand peers and in seeking help from teaching staff, ethnic Chinese students often experienced difficulties in intercultural communication. In moving from dialectic to dialogic styles of learning, they had to acquire communication strategies that enabled them to question, challenge, interrupt, and manage co-operative learning situations. Alliances among other ethnic Chinese and international students appeared to facilitate intercultural and educational understanding. By contrast, communication and co-operation with New Zealand students, although desired, often remained elusive. The study has implications for optimizing intercultural communication in the classroom with students from Chinese and other non-Western cultures.
135 citations
TL;DR: This article explored the types of oral genres in design education, their distinguishing features, skills faculty ascribe to success for these genres, and the role of these genres in the social communities and practices of design studios.
Abstract: Grounded in a communication in the disciplines (CID) theoretical framework, this study was the first phase of a multiphased project exploring oral genres in the academic discipline of design. The purpose of this study was to provide a baseline understanding of how faculty perceive and assign meaning to the oral genres that students performed in their studios. Through qualitative observation and ethnographic interviewing over a year-long period, I explored the types of oral genres in design education, their distinguishing features, skills faculty ascribe to success for these genres, and the role of oral genres in the social communities and practices of design studios. Results illustrate four distinct oral genres in this context—specifically defined by the prominence of visual and spatial elements and audience feedback—within which specific skills mark success. Results also suggest oral genres function as ritualistic performances—a metaphor that illustrates the social, situated, and rhetorical role of oral ...
97 citations
TL;DR: The superintendency has evolved through four traditional conceptualizations: superintendent as a teacher of teachers, as manager, as statesman, or as applied social scientist as mentioned in this paper, and the efficacy of this situational perspective is questionable in relation to current conditions in society and public schools.
Abstract: Normative communicative behavior for school superintendents appears to have evolved as a set of role-related and context-dependent skills. The efficacy of this situational perspective, however, is questionable in relation to current conditions in society and public schools. The superintendency has evolved through four traditional conceptualizations: superintendent as a teacher of teachers, as manager, as statesman, or as applied social scientist. Experience arising from the current school reform movement demonstrates that relationship-enhancing communication rather than top-down dicta are necessary for advancing educational agendas. National standards documents governing the training and qualifications of school superintendents do allude to communication competence, but provide inadequate foundation or elaboration. In particular, movement toward improving superintendent communication competence is attenuated by three deficiencies: (1) the failure to define competency in relation to this position, (2) the ...
92 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore students' primary goals in such interactions and reveal that primary goals are not necessarily instrumental, and suggest that instructors would benefit from learning how to diagno...
Abstract: Students talk with teachers about disappointing grades for different reasons, and the way students frame such interactions has consequences for how those interactions are likely to unfold. To explore students’ primary goals in such interactions, 234 undergraduates reported on a recent conversation with an instructor about a lower-than-desired grade. Three different primary goals (learning, persuading, and fighting) initially were postulated, and a fourth (impressing) emerged from students’ responses. Differences in students’ primary goals for talking with their instructors were related to the attributions that they made for the low grade as well as to different face-threatening acts and politeness strategies they enacted during the interaction with their instructor. Findings illustrate how the primary goal framework can be extended into the instructional communication context, reveal that primary goals are not necessarily instrumental, and suggest that instructors would benefit from learning how to diagno...
63 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the negotiations between an experienced teacher and a novice teacher during joint planning and find that participants in a community of practice need to evolve productive ways of challenging the assumptions and practices of the community.
Abstract: A new teacher's progress from novice to expert involves learning not only discipline-specific content and pedagogy, but also norms for how to talk in the community of practice. Through participation in joint planning conversations with experienced teachers, student teachers learn how to talk about planning lessons and units. This learning, though, is a two-way process. The encounter between experienced members and new members is an integral part of ongoing renewal in a community of practice. These encounters, however, can arouse tensions between the goals of the two parties, tensions that are particularly difficult to manage in a hierarchical and high-stakes cooperating teacher-student teacher relationship. An examination of the negotiations between an experienced teacher and a novice teacher during joint planning indicates that participating in a community of practice requires new members to evolve productive ways of challenging the assumptions and practices of the community, ways of negotiating shared p...
55 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the different knowledge structures constructed and expressed by the teacher and the students in classroom discourse, and identified the gaps in knowledge structures expressed between teacher and student talk in a secondary mathematics class.
Abstract: Using a functional linguistic theoretical and analytical framework, this study examines talk in a secondary mathematics class. Viewing communication as one of the key processes in building understanding, the study focuses on the different knowledge structures constructed and expressed by the teacher and the students in classroom discourse. Results examine the range of knowledge structures realized in both teacher and student discourse, and identify the gaps in knowledge structures expressed between teacher and student talk. Ultimately, this study provides instructional implications for classroom teachers to help them address new educational reforms that emphasize students' capability to communicate mathematically.
53 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the dilemmas communicated by white students as they addressed issues of whiteness raised in an undergraduate interracial communication course and identified communication patterns associated with dealing with white privilege, defining an antiracist lifestyle, and becoming comfortable with communicating about race.
Abstract: The study examines the dilemmas communicated by White students as they addressed issues of whiteness raised in an undergraduate interracial communication course. Data included semester-long in-class observation, three focus groups of White students from the class, and student documents. Communication patterns associated with dealing with White privilege, defining an antiracist lifestyle, and becoming comfortable with communicating about race were identified. Reasons for and response to white student silence in diversity-related courses are discussed.
53 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a research project investigated manifestations of critical thinking in pupils 10 to 12 years of age during group discussions held in the context of Philosophy for Children Adapted to Mathematics.
Abstract: This research project investigated manifestations of critical thinking in pupils 10 to 12 years of age during their group discussions held in the context of Philosophy for Children Adapted to Mathematics. The objective of the research project was to examine, through the pupils’ discussions, the development of dialogical critical thinking processes. The research was conducted during an entire school year. The research method was based on the Grounded Theory approach; the material used consisted of transcripts of verbal exchanges among the pupils (at the beginning, middle and end of the school year). Analysis of the transcripts revealed that: (1) critical thinking appears to the extent that a ‘dia-logue’ is established among pupils; (2) on the cognitive level, dialogical critical thinking is comprised of four thinking modes: logical, creative, responsible and meta-cognitive; and (3) on the epistemological level, dialogical critical thinking is only manifested in a context where egocentricity of perspective ...
53 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored two approaches to oral communication pedagogy in design education, a public speaking approach and a genre-based linguistic approach, and then applied one particular linguistic approach to novice design studio presentations.
Abstract: Good design skills are the main focus of assessment practices in design education and are evaluated primarily by drawings and models. In some settings, design studio pedagogy tends to reflect only these content-oriented assessment priorities, with minimal attention paid to the development of oral communication skills. Yet, in many professional contexts, architects need both sets of skills: design competence and the ability to articulate designs for an audience. This paper explores two approaches to oral communication pedagogy in design education—a public speaking approach and a genre-based linguistic approach—and then applies one particular linguistic approach to novice design studio presentations. Based on the findings of this study, we argue that the linguistic, genre-based approach can best offer language-based, discipline-specific description of performance strategies, rhetorical structures, and the linguistic realizations of such structures. Such information can contribute to improved pedagogical pra...
TL;DR: In this article, student reports of teacher immediacy were compared with observer-coded videotapes of the instructors, and the results showed a nonsignificant association (r=−.15) between student reports and coded observations.
Abstract: This project was undertaken to address the question of whether student reports are a valid way to measure teacher nonverbal immediacy. In response to concerns about psychometric shortcomings of available immediacy measures, Study 1 was conducted to refine the items used to measure teacher immediacy. The resulting set of 8 items, Nonverbal Immediacy in College Classroom Instruction (NICCI), has two correlated factors: affiliation and animation. In Study 2, student reports of teacher immediacy using the NICCI were compared with observer-coded videotapes of the instructors. The results showed a nonsignificant association (r=−.15) between student reports and coded observations. These findings fail to support the common presumption that student reports are a valid way to measure teacher immediacy behaviors.
TL;DR: In this article, a conceptual definition of instructional communication competence is proposed based on prior research and theory, which is holistic, transactional, expansive, and assessable, and validated by engaging students with learning disabilities in interviews and focus groups, employing a phenomenological methodology.
Abstract: Based on prior research and theory, we propose a conceptual definition of instructional communication that is holistic, transactional, expansive, and assessable. Second, we extend instructional communication research to test this definition by engaging students with learning disabilities (SWLDs) in interviews and focus groups, employing a phenomenological methodology. Specifically, 21 college SWLDs reflected on their lived experience and shared their perceptions of competent and incompetent instructor communication. Important connections between the proposed definition of instructional communication competence and the ten emergent themes that resulted from phenomenological description and reduction confirm that the proposed definition is valid conceptually and operationally, at least as represented by this study. The central metaphorical interpretation that emerged from this study ‘being in a front row seat’ recognizes not only the interest, involvement, and desire for inclusion by SWLDs, but also the nee...
TL;DR: In this article, the cognitive indicators associated with asynchronous online discussion were found to increase the engagement in face-to-face in-class discussions in a hybrid world-cycling course.
Abstract: Asynchronous online discussion has been shown to enhance communication between students and to elicit many cognitive indicators. Nevertheless, historians have often been reluctant to make use of such instructional technology. Students enrolled in a fully online world civilization course corroborated qualitative research findings regarding the cognitive indicators associated with asynchronous discussion. In contrast, students in face-to-face web-enhanced hybrid world civilization classes exhibited less dramatic cognitive indicators in asynchronous discussion, perhaps due to the greater maturity in terms of age and experience of the fully online students. Students in the hybrid class, however, did indicate that participation in online discussions enhanced their engagement in face-to-face in-class discussions. However, asynchronous discussions did not prompt the face-to-face students to achieve authentic dialog between students in the classroom, and neither group managed to transcend problems of inequitable ...
TL;DR: This article examined emerging inquiries and dialogue of five to six-year-old kindergartners taking place around computers as they engaged in a mapping project in a technology-rich classroom in the U.S.
Abstract: This qualitative study examined emerging inquiries and dialogue of five- to six-year-old kindergartners (9 boys and 9 girls) taking place around computers as they engaged in a mapping project in a technology-rich classroom in the U.S. Discourse analysis of young children's conversations in a technology-rich classroom shed light on their perceptions of computer-based technology as a learning tool. Key findings revealed: (a) cumulative talk patterns among the children evolved into exploratory talk; (b) children's thinking, questioning, and talking was purposeful, reflective, and autonomous; (c) children's speech and dialogue influenced their emergent technological literacy skills; (d) peer collaboration and teacher input scaffolded student development; and (e) students discovered personal preferences in using various tools.
TL;DR: The authors argue that the focus of CID on specialized competencies is too narrow and argue that CXC project should instead emphasize liberal education, which is productive of a multifaceted citizenship.
Abstract: Communication Across the Curriculum (CXC) has been gaining theoretical sophistication in recent years, slowly moving beyond an exclusively skills orientation. Proponents of Communication In the Disciplines (CID) focus on teaching students specific disciplinary communication conventions as productive of knowledge and identity. I claim in this essay that the focus of CID on specialized competencies is too narrow. The CXC project should instead emphasize liberal education, which is productive of a multifaceted citizenship. Liberal education can be advanced through strategic use of core styles throughout the curriculum. Core styles of expression, exposition, and persuasion—which are foundational to but transcend disciplinary styles—provide tools for understanding, performing, critiquing, and resisting knowledge and identity production. A dialectic of Communication Against the Disciplines and CID would encourage in students multiple and diverse ways of thinking and doing. Approached this way, CXC can help the ...
TL;DR: This article used the discourse of technology framework to interpret and explore the communication practices of one disciplinary community (mechanical engineering) with attention to the public presentation genre using an ethnographic orientation, data were extracted from a variety of documents and field notes from meetings and classroom observations.
Abstract: Dannels (2001) has advocated Communication in the Disciplines (CID) as a model for Communication Across the Curriculum (CXC) teaching and scholarship. Turning attention toward CID work requires an alternative way of thinking and planning, and invites an expanded, discipline-specific agenda for CXC scholarship. The purpose of this study was to engage in that discipline-specific agenda—using Carolyn Miller's discourse of technology framework to interpret and explore the communication practices of one disciplinary community (mechanical engineering) with attention to the public presentation genre. Using an ethnographic orientation, data were extracted from a variety of documents (the Department of Mechanical Engineering website, course syllabi, assignment descriptions, and guidelines for evaluating oral performances) as well as field notes from meetings and classroom observations. Results illustrate this community was indeed driven by the discourse of technology—that speaking well in this community meant focu...
TL;DR: The authors found that effective communication in this setting was related, in part, to choices about oral grammar and drew on functional grammar and the sociology of scientific discourse to understand their observations, and offered these insights to the honors students planning their presentations.
Abstract: Trained in a distanced and distancing style of writing, students on the threshold of graduate study in archeology can find oral presentations challenging. Although they worry about presenting themselves (“Will I sound like a competent scholar?”) and presenting information (“Will they think I know what I'm talking about?”), their success depends largely on linguistic choices that affect the degree of abstraction in the message itself. Through participant observation, I discovered that effective communication in this setting was related, in part, to choices about oral grammar. I drew on functional grammar and the sociology of scientific discourse to understand my observations, and offered these insights to the honors students planning their presentations.
TL;DR: Using an interdisciplinary approach and historical-materialist perspective, the authors argued that economic systems largely influence and maintain the operation of all cultural activity and argued that future textbooks should augment current interdisciplinary approaches to allow for a discussion of the link between communication and economics, thus enhancing the reader's understanding.
Abstract: Using an interdisciplinary approach and historical-materialist perspective, this article argues that economic systems largely influence and maintain the operation of all cultural activity. It contends that today's world has become increasingly dependent on a global economy dominated by capitalism—a profit-driven system—that has come to influence all aspects of life. As such, it ought to be a primary subject to be discussed in intercultural communication textbooks. To explicate the link between economics and communication, the author examines competition and consumerism, dominant cultural, and class-based tendencies in the U.S., as inherent characteristics of this economic system. The author will also detail the influence of these tendencies on communication, both domestically and internationally. This article argues that future textbooks should augment current interdisciplinary approaches to allow for a discussion of the link between communication and economics, thus enhancing the reader's understanding o...
TL;DR: The authors argued that teaching in a discipline-specific manner will fragment the humanistic mission of teaching speaking or writing, and argued that students wrestling to learn discipline specific rhetorics can yet accomplish the humanism tasks of finding identity and challenging prevailing language conventions.
Abstract: Parallel to current trends in communication across the curriculum (CXC), the field of writing across the curriculum (WAC) earlier experienced a shift from generalized writing-to-learn emphases to more discipline-specific writing research and instruction. Based on studies of course demands as well as of writing in the professions, the consensus among WAC teachers now recognizes that the teaching of writing in disciplines must align with the particular practices of those disciplines, though that alignment is not always easy to achieve. Some critics of this consensus echo concerns expressed in this issue by Fleury, that teaching in a discipline-specific manner will fragment the humanistic mission of teaching speaking or writing. Yet, students wrestling to learn discipline-specific rhetorics can yet accomplish the humanistic tasks of finding identity and even challenging prevailing language conventions.
TL;DR: The authors examined student perceptions regarding the utility of technology supplements that accompanied a public speaking fundamentals textbook and found that students perceived technology supplements to be most helpful as study aids and speech preparation tools, but only when they worked properly, were required and were related directly to course objectives.
Abstract: Technology supplements to college textbooks, such as self-guided quizzes and exercises available over the Internet, have become commonplace. The current study examined student perceptions regarding the utility of technology supplements that accompanied a public speaking fundamentals textbook. At semester's end, students reported the supplements to be less useful than they had expected. The supplements were perceived to be more useful by females than by males. The supplements were reported to be more useful when they were required than when they were not. Students perceived technology supplements to be most helpful as study aids and speech preparation tools, but only when they worked properly, were required, and were related directly to course objectives. Instructors are ultimately responsible for ensuring that technology supplements function properly for their students.
TL;DR: This article investigated the impact of a teacher's interpretive authority on the content and conduct of discussions of poetry in two ninth-grade classes and found significant differences in all three variables in both classes.
Abstract: In this study we investigated the impact of a teacher's interpretive authority on the content and conduct of discussions of poetry in two ninth-grade classes. Three authority conditions were examined: a condition in which the teacher taught a poem he had written, a condition in which the teacher taught a poem he had taught many times previously, and a condition in which the teacher taught a poem that he saw for the first time along with his students. Transcribed discussions were segmented into turns and communication units. Turns were analyzed for how they related to the previous turn and informative statements were analyzed for the kind of reasoning and knowledge source speakers employed. Within-class chi-square analyses identified significant differences in all three variables in both classes. Coupled with an examination of the proportion of teacher talk in the discussions and of particpants’ evaluation of the discussions, these analyses suggest that reducing a teacher's authority over the text under di...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the utility of a particular writing assignment, application essays, as a course assessment tool in a basic communication course and found that Seventy percent of the conceptual connections were appropriate.
Abstract: The assessment of student learning in general education courses is of critical importance in higher education. This study examined the utility of a particular writing assignment, application essays, as a course assessment tool in a basic communication course. Application essays are one page compositions asking students to describe a communication event and to use a single concept from class to analyze that experience. A content analysis of 369 application essays contained in 140 student portfolios coded (a) categories of communication events, (b) categories of course content, and (c) the quality of the linkages between them in the student writings. In general, students focused on mass media events, and utilized concepts developed early in the class. Seventy percent of the conceptual connections were appropriate. Results were used to subsequently modify the application essay assignment to encourage more diverse topical coverage.
TL;DR: The authors argue that learning about discipline-specific communication conventions can promote the goals of liberal education and citizenship, and that students learn about communication as process when they compare communication conventions across disciplines and learn that each context is characterized by its own ways of privileging some communication performances and disallowing others.
Abstract: Anthony Fleury proposes a Communication Against the Disciplines paradigm as a counterpoint to Communication in the Disciplines approaches to teaching communication across the curriculum. Contrary to Fleury's contention, however, learning about discipline-specific communication conventions can indeed promote the goals of liberal education and citizenship. Students learn about communication as process when they compare communication conventions across disciplines and learn that each context is characterized by its own ways of privileging some communication performances and disallowing others. Communication Against the Disciplines' focus on three broad styles of communication results renders communication products more salient than processes. Moreover, the three styles Fleury identifies are not comprehensive; they neglect non-Western rhetorics, for example. Teaching communication across the curriculum should help students understand how each discipline values particular forms of communicative performance, so...
TL;DR: The authors explore complexities that accompany a communication in the disciplines identity in practice and discuss how contributing articles provide insight into various aspects of these CID complexities and offer McClintock's idea of "leaning in" as a salient metaphor for CID work.
Abstract: The “Communication in the Disciplines” (Dannels, 2001) framework suggests that communication norms, genres, and standards for success are situated and disciplinary. In this introductory essay, I explore complexities that accompany a “communication in the disciplines” identity in practice—adopting a mindset of curiosity, an ability to listen carefully to other disciplines, and a willingness to let go of our own disciplinary biases. I discuss how contributing articles provide insight into various aspects of these CID complexities and offer McClintock's (as cited in Keller, 1983) idea of “leaning in” as a salient metaphor for CID work.