Education Commons^™

The Song Of Life: Listening To Self, Others, Nature, And God (The Divine), E. James Baesler

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

“Listening to the SONG of Life” is a pedagogical framework that conceptualizes listening as a multi-sensory experience in four contexts: Self, Others, Nature, and God/Goddess (the Divine). L-SONG (Listening-SONG) is an instrument developed to measure student learning in four contexts during a listening course.

Investigating Name, Image, And Likeness Through Project-Based Learning, Brendan O'Hallarn, Craig A. Morehead, Michelle Carpenter, Jay O'Toole

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

The 2021 Supreme Court ruling granting college athletes the right to monetize their name, image, and likeness (NIL) was greeted in equal measure by enthusiasm and confusion by college athletes and the institutions for which they compete. This paper suggests an approach whereby college classes can provide guidance for college athletes to navigate the nascent, evolving NIL rules and provide an opportunity for current, relevant project-based learning. The Old Dominion University Name, Image, and Likeness Knowledge Hub had limitations in its deliverable—a guide for college athletes seeking to leverage their NIL rights—but it represents a novel learning opportunity because of …

From Talking Stick To Listening Stick: A Variation On An Ancient Practice, E. James Baesler

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

Goals:

The primary goal is to introduce students to the concept, experience, and application of the listening stick activity within the context of an undergraduate listening course. Students participate in a group listening stick activity that cultivates experiences of first person attention, focus, and awareness of self and others’ feelings and needs for the purpose of self-discovery and building small group cohesiveness. As a secondary goal, students learn how to apply the listening stick activity to interpersonal and small group situations in school, work, social, and spiritual settings for a variety of purposes including relationship building, problem-solving and decision-making.

Listening To The Song Of Life: An Autoethnographic Account Of Teaching An Undergraduate Listening Course, E. James Baesler

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

A new approach to teaching the listening course at the undergraduate level provides opportunities for students to experience the SONG of life. SONG is an acronym for listening to the whole of life in the contexts of Self (e.g., discerning inner wisdom), Others (e.g., connecting with feelings and needs), Nature (beholding the beauty of nature), and God (e.g., discovering and connecting with the divine). A rationale and description of the new listening course is provided followed by a chronological autoethnographic account of teaching/learning the SONG of life using the four contexts as verses of the SONG with twenty undergraduate students …

Listening To The Divine Song Within The Greater Song Of Life, E. James Baesler

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

[First section]

Why I Teach Listening to the Divine Song

This autoethnography narrates how I came to teach listening to the divine song as part of an undergraduate listening course called Listening to the SONG of Life.¹ Before I describe two personal stories that explain why I teach listening to the divine, a brief introduction to my interpretation of the autoethnographic method is in order.

Autoethnography, as used in this story, is grounded in the assumptions that language is a primary medium by which we are conscious, understand the world, and communicate our learnings to others in stories,^{2 …}

Searching For The Divine: An Autoethnographic Account Of Religious/Spiritual And Academic Influences On The Journey To Professor, E. James Baesler

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

This autoethnographic account chronicles my academic and religious/spiritual path to becoming a professor of Communication. Spiritual influences and significant life events related to prayer, education, teaching, and research serve as sign posts marking the way. The journey begins with a child scientist experimenting with life—and an adolescent discovering the joy of reading through an illness. The journey continues with a crisis in undergraduate years followed by indoctrination stories of graduate school. Securing and retaining an academic position in Communication reveals the complexities of negotiating research and teaching in higher education. After tenure and promotion, a concurrent spiritual awakening begins a …

Meditation In The Classroom: Cultivating Attention And Insight, E. James Baesler

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

Goals: Care must be taken by the instructor not to overemphasize achieving the goal(s) of meditation. Often, when there is too much emphasis on trying to reach the goal, the benefits of meditating can be hindered. On the other hand, when the goal of meditation is held loosely, then the goal is more easily approached. For this class meditation activity, the instructor might loosely hold several interrelated goals for their students: cultivate experiences of first person attention, concentration, and awareness while simultaneously developing capacities for insight, imagination, exploration, and discernment of ideas related to class content and applications to everyday …

Adding Glamour To Theory: Experiencing Theory In The Basic Course In Interpersonal Communication, Thomas Joseph Socha

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

Focusing on the use of popular magazines in interpersonal communication instruction, this paper argues that such magazines can provide a rich source for application and criticism of interpersonal communication processes in everyday life. The first section of the paper reviews research and criticism dealing with the content of magazine articles that offer advice on interpersonal relationships and related topics, noting that such research and criticism are rare in the field. The second section provides a framework for integrating popular literature into the interpersonal course by discussing three methods of integration: critique application, discussion application, and role-play application. The third section …

Teaching Prayer: Pilot Survey Of Academic Courses On Personal Prayer, E. James Baesler

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

The practical concerns of an individual interested in learning about prayer in an academic context are interconnected with the practical concerns about teaching an academic course on prayer. A pilot study proposed to investigate and evaluate the context and content of academic courses on personal prayer from the perspective of teaching prayer, asking what proportion of institutions of higher education offer courses on prayer, in which department, and on what level. The search was limited to the Christian faith, and in particular to private colleges and universities of the Catholic denomination. An online Internet search yielded a sample of 126 …