Noting that too many people, including college teachers and administrators, view literature as entertainment and, thus, impractical in the "real world" of employment, a teacher at North Hennepin Community College in suburban Minneapolis supports requiring literature as the primary reading in Freshman English classes. After remarking that…

Despite exhortations from public relations practitioners, theorists, and educators as to the need to equip practitioners with management skills, a review of 59 academic programs in public relations finds that most undergraduate programs appear to pay only lip service to this goal. While many programs offer no undergraduate courses specifically…

This paper offers a critique of elaboration theory (ET) based on recent cognitive research and offers suggestions for updating the model to reflect new knowledge. It begins by summarizing the basic strategies of this model for sequencing and organizing courses of instruction: (1) organizing structure; (2) simple-to-complex sequence; (3) sequencing…

A study assessed the status of the undergraduate communication theory course at small and large colleges. An investigation of communication theory course descriptions (offered by 261 communication programs) found that the course is taught at both small and large colleges, but there is little general agreement about what should be covered in the…

Advertising programs have an obligation to teach job search skills to their students and it is in their own best interests to do so. The rationale for this is threefold. First, advertising programs must command the respect of the professionals in the field, because professionals represent the employment market and are increasingly becoming sources…

A study assessed whether means for student evaluations of instruction tended to be lower in research methods classes than in other communication classes. Questionnaires were sent to 126 communication departments listed in the 1993 Speech Communication Association Directory and which were thought likely to require undergraduate research methods…

The meteoric rise of Multinational Enterprises (MNE's) and the concomitant increase in international trade and investment speak to the crucial need for a global perspective to be incorporated into the curriculum of the organizational communication course. The communication functions of MNE's are an increasingly important focus for students of…

Testifying to the virtues of teaching at an all-women's college (Mills College, Oakland, California), a male tenured professor of communication and film acknowledges the necessity of making difficult decisions concerning course content and focus. Through several uncomfortable experiences, he has learned what it is like to be gender conscious; he…

This National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) board of directors substantive issue session initiated the process of developing a position statement for the educational observance of the Quincentenary of Columbus' landing in the Americas. The meeting consisted of proposal statements by panelists and advocated the development of a united…

Although student evaluation data provide a reasonable basis for making decisions about instructors when generalizing across courses and students, when the course is the object of measurement (OM), data are less generalizable. This finding may be due to the type of evaluation items used or to academic discipline differences in the type of courses…

Empathic listening is central to almost all human communication processes. "Feeling with" another is the heart of empathic listening: it includes a cognitive understanding of what the other is communicating plus a sensitivity to their state of emotion. One possible approach to utilize in the teaching of empathic listening is to begin a…

A fall 1990 mail survey of 1,000 Indiana public administrators (500 state, 500 local) was carried out by the Center for Governmental Services at Indiana State University. The survey sought to identify the aggregate and individual views of these incumbent public administrators concerning issues of import to the teaching of public administration at…

Inadequate teacher training and the lack of consensus on what constitutes sex education are often cited to explain why few sex education programs are offered in the public schools. A survey of administrative officials at 777 teacher preparation institutions was conducted to examine the number and type of university-level programs designed to…

Doctoral education in nursing is relatively new, with 14 of the 22 programs identified by the National League of Nursing being established after 1970. To identify trends, patterns of consistency, recurrent gerontological foci, and the frequency of occurrence of identified factors in graduate programs in Gerontological Nursing, the curricula,…

Intended for use by instructors of public relations courses, this paper discusses teaching methods that can be used to demonstrate to students how much of the news involves events that are carefully planned by public relations practitioners and some of the techniques the practitioners use to create these events. The paper describes in detail…