Education Commons^™

Peer Mentoring In An Entry-Level Occupational Therapy Program: Student Experiences During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Lauren E. Stone Kelly

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impacts on education. During this time, educators were tasked to develop creative and new ways to engage and teach students. Mentoring has been shown to positively impact academic and psychosocial outcomes and can enhance clinical skills in both in-person and e-learning environments. However, there is need for further research on peer mentoring programs in occupational therapy curriculum.

Method: This retrospective qualitative study investigates the effects of peer mentoring on student perceptions of learning and professional development. Experiences were tracked for three semesters during the pandemic at an accredited entry-level occupational therapy …

“It’S Hidden, After All:” A Modified Delphi Study Exploring Faculty And Students’ Perceptions Of A Graduate Professional Seminar In Communication, Krista Hoffmann-Longtin, Maria Brann, The Professional Seminar Delphi Working Group

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Graduate student socialization has been studied in multiple disciplines, including communication. As their career trajectories change, faculty must consider how to socialize students into the field and their subsequent careers. Using a modified Delphi survey, we examined the differences in faculty and students’ perceptions regarding the content of a graduate professional seminar in communication. Results indicate that students would prefer a focus on implicit norms and the hidden curriculum, while faculty would prefer to focus on disciplinary content. We offer recommendations for developing a course that addresses both needs and, thus, simultaneously attends to the changing job market.

Confronting Students’ Personal And Interpersonal Communication Anxieties And Needs Through Constitutive, Experiential Communication Pedagogy, Lawrence R. Frey, Emily Loker

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Today’s college students are experiencing unprecedented high levels of anxiety, resulting in devastating effects. This essay challenges communication educators to respond directly to this significant issue by employing an experiential pedagogy that offers students constitutive opportunities to initiate, experiment with, and receive feedback about new communicative behaviors that will enable them to interact well and achieve positive outcomes in high anxiety-inducing interactions. The essay explicates how that constitutive, experiential pedagogy informs the course “Communication and Human Relations,” enabling students to acquire communication competencies to reduce their anxiety about and to manage effectively their personal and interpersonal communication difficulties.

Teaching The Communication Course: Intercultural Communication, Nathan G. Webb, Mary Stairs Vaughn

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Intercultural Communication is a course that can help individuals gain the knowledge and tools to be an effective communicator in a globalized world. This article seeks to answer the question about what students enrolled in an Intercultural Communication course should learn. Specifically, the Intercultural Communication course is examined by examining its foundations, content areas, applied assignments, and issues to consider.

A Pedagogical Guide To Teaching An Interpersonal Communication Course, Jordan Atkinson, David Mcmahan

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This forum article focuses on the instruction of an interpersonal communication course. Interpersonal communication courses are widely included in undergraduate communication curriculum and can be fundamental to student development. The authors provide foundational material and various content areas generally included in such a course. The authors also provide various applied assignments and issues to consider when teaching an interpersonal communication course.

The Evolution Of Communication Pedagogy, Jerry D. Feezel

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This article is an overview of the major developments in the field of communication in education. From the history of the national association over 100 plus years, specific attention is paid to changes leading to the advent of this publication. Changes in nomenclature, conferences, publications, research, and educational trends are discussed. The essay is intended to provide a view of history as setting for inauguration of the Journal of Communication Pedagogy. It also is intended to invite and stimulate other scholars’ reflections on the nature and evolution of the field.

Using Freewriting In Public Speaking Courses To Remedy Student Apathy: An Unconventional Solution To A Common Problem, Flora Keshishian

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Student apathy—a lack of motivation or mental presence in the classroom—is common in many academic institutions and courses of study. In Public Speaking courses, speech anxiety can be a factor that contributes to student apathy. To solve this problem, I suggest implementing an unconventional approach—in-class unguided longhand freewriting—that requires students to write nonstop about anything that comes to mind, without censoring or editing, during the first five minutes of each class session. I base this recommendation on my own observations of the students’ body language during the freewriting period, as well as my qualitative analysis of 95 students’ written feedback …

Making A Difference: The Launch Of The Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Scott A. Myers

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Communication pedagogy is the systematic study, reflection, and identification of teaching practices across communication course curricula that results ultimately in effective classroom instruction, gains in student learning, and the establishment of a supportive learning environment. Systematic study focuses on the teaching, the assessment, or the scholarship of teaching and learning of a specific communication course, extra-curricular activity (e.g., forensics), or curriculum (e.g., internships, concentrations/areas of emphases, undergraduate programs). Reflection centers on a pedagogical problem or issue encountered by instructors when teaching a specific communication course. Best practices offer tips for teaching or assessing a specific communication course, extra-curricular activity, or …

Creating A Speech Choir: The Bounty Of Authentic Audience Experience For Students, Susan Redding Emel

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

For most students at my university, classroom experience alone was the choice for formally developing speaking skills. My idea was to provide students with recurring authentic audience experience, attending to the audience dimension outlined by Derryberry (1989) as a critical requirement of public speaking pedagogy. Through research, a new idea was proposed: Create a Speech Choir, combining talents of the students in one performance. Though it has elements of forensics, reader’s theater, choral reading, public speaking and more, it is not identical to any of these. As the team evolved, more pedagogical elements were added including service learning, attention to …

Life Is A Lab: Developing A Communication Research Lab For Undergraduate And Graduate Education, Autumn P. Edwards, Chad Edwards, Patric R. Spence

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Tips offered center on classroom discourse, curriculum choices, and potential assignments. In this article, we present tips for creating a thriving undergraduate and graduate communication research lab. Based on our experiences developing and co-directing the Communication and Social Robotics Labs (CSRLs), we offer 10 best practices for acquiring resources and recognition, building a strong lab community, and attaining faculty and student goals for scholarship and beyond. Our overarching approach is framed by Dewey’s (1916) pragmatist educational metaphysic, which stresses student- and subject-centered learning, enlarging experiences, and the co-construction of meaning and knowledge. Although our labs are focused on human-machine communication …

Integrating Service-Learning In The Public Speaking Course, Elizabeth A. Munz, Roger D. Gatchet, Matthew R. Meier

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This best-practices article endorses incorporating service-learning into the foundational public speaking course. The article explains connections between service-learning and the rhetorical tradition, highlights pedagogical approaches that would benefit from a service-learning component, and discusses the benefits of service-learning for community partners and students. The remainder of the article focuses on how to implement servicelearning in a public speaking course, including reflection and assessment recommendations.

From The Classroom To The Community: Best Practices In Service-Learning, Donna R. Pawlowski

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

As a pedagogy, service-learning connects students with the community while focusing on course outcomes. The community becomes a live text for reflection and enriches students’ experiences they otherwise would not have in the classroom. This article provides tips and strategies for implementing service-learning in the classroom. These tips and strategies include developing the structure of the course, linking service-learning to outcomes, creating partnerships, working through logistics with partners, communicating with community partners, setting logistics, preparing students, creating reflections, handling challenging issues, giving credit for the learning, and assessing service-learning.

Best Practices For Training New Communication Graduate Teaching Assistants, Melissa A. Broeckelman-Post, Kristina Ruiz-Mesa

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) are often the first college instructors who new students meet when they arrive for their first day of class, and as instructors and as students, GTAs are the future of the discipline. As such, GTAs need to receive comprehensive training in a variety of pedagogical, procedural, and professional areas to help graduate students continue to develop as instructors and, eventually, into full-time faculty. To assist basic course directors, department chairs, and faculty in creating and supporting a comprehensive and ongoing GTA training program, this article provides 10 best practices for training new GTAs who will be …