LaPiere's pioneering study explored the tenuous connection between attitudes and behaviors in the context of racism. This activity provides a replication proposal framework that is useful for applying critical thinking skills, including new forms of measurement. Students read the study and provide written responses to several discussion prompts…

Course: Communication Research Methods. Objectives: This activity provides students with an experiential introduction to measurement theory and the methods for assessing measurement reliability. First, multiple measurements of a person's height are interpreted according to classical test theory. Second, the measurement of human height is used as…

Courses: Rhetorical Criticism, Communication Theory, Communication Research Methods, Introduction to Communication Studies. Objectives: This is an introductory exercise that acquaints students with rhetorical criticism as a means of communication inquiry. By the end of the exercise, students will be able to: understand symbols as connected and…

Courses: Persuasion, Group Communication, Communication Theory, Computer-Mediated Communication. Objectives: In this activity, students discuss and analyze film clips in order to understand theories, processes, and applications related to the concept of deindividuation.

Metatheoretical perspectives, and their role in influencing the research process, can be difficult for undergraduate students to grasp. The communication field brings together myriad approaches to communication, lending to students' confusion (Muller, H. L., & Craig, R. T. [2007]. Introduction. In R. T. Craig & H. L. Muller [Eds.],…

Objective: Students will develop positive attitudes toward communication research by linking new values and principles with the familiar values and principles contained in children's literature. Course: Communication Research Methods.

Although textbooks are filled with practical communication advice, many students overlook the importance of basing practical advice about communication on quality research. This oversight is important for two reasons. First, given the explosion of self-help remedies focused on communication, students should learn to distinguish between…

Presents six generalizations on using humor in public speaking. (PD)

Describes a feedback method for teaching interviewing skills that requires dual evaluation of a student's performance by both the student interviewer and the interviewee. Illustrates benefits of this method with an analysis of 139 paired assessments of students' information-gathering skills in a "career interview" assignment. (PD)

Examines research from several fields and evaluates techniques for managing discomfort when making presentations. (Written for business communication teachers and presentation-skills trainers in business.) (PD)

Uses the following four approaches to review interpersonal communication research conducted by speech communication scholars: (1) dialog, (2) cohesion, (3) message process, and (4) rhetoric. Helps to clarify why different approaches are used in teaching interpersonal communication courses. (PD)

The study of nonverbal communication continues to grow across the spectrum of research in many fields of study. Good textbooks and research studies are available to the scholar and the student, and courses about nonverbal behavior and communication are found in modern curricula. This book focuses on the complex, often hidden, processes that…

For those researchers who are also concerned with the quality of their teaching, this article describes a procedure for incorporating students as part of a research team and illustrates this procedure with a study designed to analyze conflict in interpersonal relationships. (PD)

This book discusses two major approaches to social science research: quantitative research, which involves converting observations to numbers and analyzing them statistically; and qualitative research, which looks at participants' opinions, behaviors, and experiences from their own points of view and in a more subjective way. In the book,…

Intended to assist educators at all levels to teach students who are quiet, the first part of this book (The Quiet Ones: Why Are They So Quiet?) presents a summary of current theory and research concerning quiet children and their low willingness to communicate. The second part of the book (Working with Quiet Children) includes specific…