A study was done of college undergraduates' views of course syllabi as syllabi are generally the primary vehicles by which course instructors initially communicate plans, goals, and expectations to students. The study proceeded with an open-ended, one-question survey distributed to students in seven undergraduate classes from four different…

A course in speech writing (preparing speeches for delivery by another person) is critical to the development of public speaking skills for college students. Unlike the traditional public speaking course, speech writing classes emphasize the preparation of the content of a speech over the delivery of the message. Students develop the ability to…

Textbook censorship cases from Tennessee and Alabama have been brought before the U.S. Supreme Court. In east Tennessee, fundamentalist families objected to a 1983 Holt, Rinehart, and Winston reading series for grades 1-8. Federal District Judge Thomas G. Hull held that Hawkins County Schools had violated the families' First Amendment rights and…

A student's perspective of graduate level training in evaluation is presented. The primary focus is on the training of evaluators. A secondary focus is on the training of users of evaluation. The position presented in this paper is that (1) evaluation is a higher order skill comprised of many individual skills and skill sets or processes, (2) the…

A state sponsored pilot project designed to provide special education services to rural South Dakota has attempted to overcome high teacher turnover due to lack of community resources, inappropriate preservice preparation, and poor relationships with administrators and peers. The model emphasizes retraining rural special educators as special…

A group of 195 students enrolled in various communications courses at General Motors Institute filled out course evaluation forms which were then factor analyzed. Items involving an evaluation of teachers accounted for 69% of the variation. Items about course objectives, amount of work in relation to credit, textbooks, tests, and assignments were…

The rapid growth in the field of interpersonal communication has outstripped educational planning in the field, resulting in the espousal of questionable methods of selecting and presenting the materials germane to interpersonal communication. One of the more recent directions of instruction in interpersonal communication has been toward a…

The popular arts are useful resources in college composition courses both because of their appeal for students and because they embody the fundamental patterns, or archetypes, found in myths, fairy tales, and classic literature. The nine basic archetypes examined in certain composition classes at Queens College (Flushing, New York) are the Shadow,…

This paper discusses the objectives of a program in biomechanics--the analysis of sports skills and movement--and the evolution of the biomechanics program at Iowa State University. The primary objective of such a course is to provide the student with the basic tools necessary for adequate analysis of human movement, with special emphasis upon…

To determine the effectiveness of a graduate educational assessment course in measurement processes, this study compared test scores from the beginning and from the end of the course. The three sections that were the focus of the study were offered in 2002 and 2003 by the same instructor. The course was offered as a traditional face-to-face class…

This study examines the effects of school contexts, individual differences, and motivational goals and benefits on current events knowledge. A review of the literature focuses on motivation study of goal theory and self-efficacy. The sample includes 798 students from nine high schools (grades 9-12) in diverse geographical locations and of various…

This paper presents a series of handouts that were developed for a senior seminar capstone course in communication entitled "Leadership and Communication." The paper pinpoints the increasing interest in the areas of "leadership" and "ethics" as areas of study and research in universities, and suggests that these two areas merge in what the current…

Since its formation in 1976, the Canadian Association of Nordic Ski Instructors (CANSI) has certified over 2600 instructors across Canada. CANSI aims to provide a standard of excellence in certified nordic ski instruction by maintaining uniform and current nordic techniques, to encourage the skiing public to take advantage of the benefits of…

Recent articles in behavioral sciences statistics literature address the need for modernizing graduate statistics programs and courses. This paper describes the development of one such course and evaluates student background for a class designed to provide a more consumer-oriented type of statistics instruction by focusing on the needs of students…

Frustrated with existing approaches to teaching introductory small group communication, an instructor developed a systematic approach called Group Problem Solving through Communication Styles. Assumptions underlying the course are that the small group communication class is a general education course (it may be the only communication class taken…