Higher Education Commons^™

Grade Distributions In The Basic Public Speaking Course: Exploring The Differences And Pedagogical Implications Of Faculty Rank, Holly J. Payne, Sally O. Hastings

Basic Communication Course Annual

This study examines differences in grade distributions in the introductory public speaking course at two American universities based on instructor rank. A sample of 442 sections with 11,381 students over a 2-year period was collected and analyzed using analysis of variance and chi-square analysis. We found significant differences in grade distributions, with instructors assigning lower grades overall than graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) and adjunct faculty. Instructors assigned significantly more D’s and F’s than tenure/track faculty, adjuncts, and GTAs. Chi-square analysis also revealed instructors and tenure/track faculty assign fewer A’s, but tenure/track faculty assign more B’s than the other faculty groups. …

Race And Resistance In The Communication Classroom, Paul Fotsch

Basic Communication Course Annual

Teaching diversity is no longer segregated to ethnic studies departments or to intercultural communication courses. Consequently, many students have become resistant to the idea of spending time--"yet again"--on the issue of race. Communication scholars have described a kind of resistance found frequently in the basic communication classroom and likewise proposed various responses to this resistance. Through a review of the literature and drawing on my ten years of experience teaching diversity in the university, this essay assesses these responses. One source of white student discomfort comes from the increasing visibility of whiteness, so two strategies used to address this discomfort …

Author Biographies

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Index Of Titles And Authors, Volumes 1-19

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Submission Guidelines

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Back Cover

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Part-Time Work As A School Psychologist, Susan C. Davies

Counselor Education and Human Services Faculty Publications

U.S. News and World Report recently rated school psychology as one of the 25 best careers for 2007, highlighting a variety of factors converging to create a strong job market outlook for school psychologists. It emphasizes the generally positive working conditions experienced by those working in our field. One of the many perks to the profession of school psychology is the potential for flexibility in one’s work, such as through parttime positions. While numerous occupations do not lend themselves to part-time work, many school districts offer appealing parttime positions to school psychologists. This is not only a good option for …

Status Of Women In Higher Education: A Metanalysis Of Institutional Reports, Kathleen Brittamart Watters, Carolyn Ridenour

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The authors examined twenty-one institutional reports on the status of women on American college and university campuses. The analysis revealed a dominant discourse of women positioned as dependent on men. Among the five emergent themes included, first, the reality that women were marginalized on these campuses and second, overrepresented in lower power positions. Third, evidence suggested an unequal distribution of salary and perquisites by gender. Fourth, adopting policies toward equity can lessen gender discrimination; however, not with a lack of a strong public and visible commitment to equity by campus leadership, the fifth theme. Additional findings include explanation of three …

Seeking Social Support Among Female Graduate Teaching Assistants, Lisa M. Theisen, Robert A. Davilla

Basic Communication Course Annual

This study investigated how female graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) develop social support and the influence that these relationships have on their academic, teaching, and social lives. In-depth interviews were conducted with seven female GTAs in a Communication Studies master’s degree program at a large southern university. Results revealed that participants formed closer, more personal relationships with other graduate students, specifically other GTAs, and that these relationships influenced their academic lives, including teaching. Participants formed meaningful but more formal relationships with faculty. Relationships with faculty had little influence on their teaching but influenced their graduate coursework and post-graduate plans.

Title Page

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Editorial Board

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Editor's Page, Paul Turman

Basic Communication Course Annual

Now in its nineteenth year, the Basic Communication Course Annual continues to serve as an important outlet within the discipline for scholarship related to the way we teach, manage, and evaluate the basic course. Each year the Annual offers some of the best research on basic course pedagogy helping to position it as the primary source for teachers and scholars working to improve the quality of the basic course at their respective institutions. The Annual's success has always been attributed to the community of scholars who continue to support the journal as contributors, editorial board members, and its readership. I …

Contents And Abstracts

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Designing Classroom Management Training For Basic Course Instructors, Kevin R. Meyer, Cheri J. Simonds, Brent K. Simonds, John R. Baldwin, Stephen K. Hunt, Mark E. Comadena

Basic Communication Course Annual

Since many basic course training programs fail to adequately address classroom management issues, most graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) enter the classroom unprepared to confront student misbehaviors. However, literature suggests that by incorporating classroom management issues into training pro­grams, GTAs will be better armed to establish the instructional climate of the classroom and confront stu­dent misbehaviors. In this study, GTAs who had not received classroom management training (CMT) were given a survey containing closed and open-ended questions regarding typical student misbehaviors, possible classroom responses to those behaviors, and preferences for classroom management information during training. The results of this study identify …

Creating Sites For Connection In The Classroom: Dialogism As A Pedagogy For Active Learning, Melissa A. Broeckelman

Basic Communication Course Annual

Public speaking pedagogy should be based in communication theory, but as a whole, our discipline has failed to integrate theory and praxis in the classroom. Dialogism is a good starting point for developing the­ory-based pedagogical strategies and is further supported by Vygotsky’s zones of proximal development, Dewey and Bruner’s call for experience-based learning, and research on collaborative learning. Here, I propose four specific strategies for incorporating dialogism into the pedagogy of public speaking courses: (a) use detailed grading rubrics to create a shared meaning of expectations before, during, and after the speech-building process, (b) give instructor feedback on outlines prior …

Learning Communities In The Basic Communication Course: Exploring Students’ Perception Of Power And Use Of Compliance-Gaining Strategies, Natalie J. Kussart, Stephen K. Hunt, Cheri J. Simonds

Basic Communication Course Annual

This study compared students’ use of behavior alteration techniques (BATs) and power based upon whether they were enrolled in learning community or traditional sections of the basic communication course being taught by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). The results of the present study reveal no differences between learning community and regularly enrolled students’ perceptions of power. However, learning community students reported using more prosocial, antisocial, and neutral compliance-gaining strategies compared to traditionally enrolled students. Overall, this study addresses the utility of incorporating learning communities into the pedagogy of the basic communication course and devotes special attention to the training needs of …

The Influence Of Diaphragmatic Breathing To Reduce Situational Anxiety For Basic Course Students, Marlina Marie Howe, Karen Kangas Dwyer

Basic Communication Course Annual

Researchers in physiology and health fields have reported a significant impact from using diaphragmatic breathing (DB) to help individuals reduce anxiety. However, few communication researchers have explored the use of this simple DB technique to help basic course students reduce communication apprehension (CA). Thus, this investigation explored the use of diaphragmatic breathing (DB) in helping students moderate CA. Respondents completed McCroskey’s (1982) Personal Reports of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) after each of four formal classroom speeches. Results indicated the experimental group using DB reported a significant decrease in state anxiety from speech the first two …

Presentation Skills: An Assessment Of University And Career-Related Presentations, Lesa A. Stern, Melissa Hailer

Basic Communication Course Annual

Two studies were conducted to assess the frequency and types of presentations students encounter across the curriculum and whether these presentations parallel those they will encounter in their chosen career. The first study was a content analysis of sixty portfolios (containing a total number of 1360 courses) to find evidence of presentation assignments across the curriculum. Results indicate students encounter one or two classroom-presentation learning experiences per year during their time at the university, and most of these presentations were group and informative oriented. The second study was a survey of faculty to assess the types of presentations required in …

Book Review: 'The Basic Communication Course Online: Scholarship And Application', Paul J. Siddens Iii

Basic Communication Course Annual

Citation information for the book reviewed:

• Goodnight, L. J., & Wallace, S. P. (2005). The Basic Communication Course Online: Scholarship and Application. Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt, 96 pp.

“The debate over whether the basic communication course should be taught online is over. Despite our reservations, we have … successfully created and taught the basic course as distance learning.”

This first sentence in co-editor Lisa Goodnight’s preface to this source book succinctly summarizes its theme: We are past the point of debating the issue of teaching the basic course online. It is now time to ensure that we engage in this process …

Author Biographies

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Index Of Titles And Authors, Volumes 1-18

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Submission Guidelines

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Back Cover

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

What I Overheard In The Sesquicentennial Conversation, Una M. Cadegan

History Faculty Publications

Catholic higher education is in many ways still responding to the challenge first articulated by John Tracy Ellis in his 1955 essay. In efforts to promote both a unique Catholic identity and a culture of excellence on par with secular institutions, Catholic universities can learn much from their historical context, founding religious communities, and contemporary experience.

This essay suggests some practical applications for campus life and governance that might be culled from a university’s religious history.

Suppressing Cultural Sensitivity: The Role Of Whiteness In Instructors' Course Content And Pedagogical Practices, Laura C. Prividera

Basic Communication Course Annual

Research indicates that students of color often experience marginalization in their academic pursuits at predominantly white institutions. This study utilized critical whiteness studies to examine how communication teachers who instructed basic courses enacted cultural sensitivity in their course content and pedagogical practices. Fifteen faculty at seven academic institutions were interviewed about their teaching practices. Three recurring themes emerged in the data analysis: (a) culture and absence, (b) culture and the marginal, and (c) culture and conflict. These themes revealed how whiteness functioned implicitly to place cultural and diversity issues outside of my participants’ knowing and thus outside of their basic …

Front Cover

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Title Page

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Editorial Board

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Editor's Page, Scott Titsworth

Basic Communication Course Annual

As my tenure as editor of the Basic Communication Course Annual comes to an end, I have a great deal of excitement about the future of communication education and basic course scholarship. Looking back on the three most recent volumes, the diversity of scholars and ideas is remarkable. Moreover, careful readings of articles found in these volumes will show that these scholars are using rigorous methods to ask and answer theoretically provocative and practically potent questions. Indeed, these volumes will add to the rich history of this journal and will also serve as a foundation from which to build as …

Contents And Abstracts

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.