In this paper, we first frame Sprague's vision in the historical context from which it emerged. From there, we explore some contemporary concerns instructional communication researchers must grapple with, and then propose some practical next steps for envisioning instructional communication research as a platform for meaningful contributions…

Instructional communication "refers to the study of the human communication process across all learning situations independent of the subject matter, the grade level, or the learning environment" (Myers, Tindage, & Atkinson, 2016, p. 13). Instructional communication is relevant to communication pedagogy because at its core,…

Do we study too much interpersonal communication and not enough of other topics in the instructional communication literature? This forum provides a mixed bag of both affirmative and negative responses to this question. On one hand, answering "yes" is quite defensible because there are many recent studies examining interpersonal…

Paul Witt challenges every reader to make a decision in response to the question: "Will the profession follow these recommendations presented in this forum?" Will "quick and dirty" survey methods be exchanged for more complex research designs?" He cautions readers to think first before replying, warning that this is a…

This article describes a new construct for coding the social communicative performance of school-aged children as they interact with peers and teachers in the classroom. The Social Communication Coding System (SCCS) allows clinicians a way of describing how children actually spend their time during the school day by observing ongoing behaviors…

Grounded in a communication theory that assumes that the form of communication affects the content of the knowledge that a teacher conveys to his or her students, a study attempted to determine how violence is treated in the classroom. The site for the study was Darbin Elementary School, in a suburb of San Francisco. The method was observation,…

Describes the development of the University of Washington's Center for Instructional Development and Research, highlighting the interface between communication and instruction. Provides examples of the application of communication concepts that influence daily operations, permeate instructional development activity, and provide a foundation for…

For years, instructional communication researchers have been advising teachers about the best classroom communication methods to achieve the greatest levels of student learning and motivation. However, traditional students (i.e., between the ages of 18 and 23) have consistently been the focus of this research. Given that over 43% of today's…

A study was conducted in a Korean language preschool in Koreatown, Los Angeles, California which used student-teacher interactions to examine how a teacher's use of deixis socializes children about what constitutes good eating practices and what cultivates them. The data for this paper came from a larger study of language socialization practices,…

The purpose of this research paper, a descriptive research paper, is to provide the necessary data to show a need for a more intensive study of the impact of academic stress on student-teacher classroom communication and relationships. Participants (n=104) were students 18 years of age who have graduated from high school, parents, teachers, and…

Carolyn Anderson is a speech and language therapist who is currently working as a senior lecturer at the University of Strathclyde. In this article she provides an early account of her ongoing research into communication between teachers and pupils with severe and complex learning disabilities. Video recordings were made of teacher-pupil…

In recognition of the importance of communication skills to all students, a communication skills program is being developed and implemented in the Lincoln, Nebraska, public school system. Since teaching itself is communication, an important goal of the program is to improve and enhance the communication effectiveness of teachers as well as…

Iowa's first-in-the-nation statewide fiber-optics telecommunications network is bringing both excitement and concern to educators. One application of the fiber-optics network is the offering of college courses through live, interactive television instruction. The teacher in the origination site classroom is linked with students in one or more…

Investigators wrote proposals for research on the nature and learning of communicative processes in the elementary classroom. Three questions were addressed: (1) What is the nature of communication in the classroom? (2) How do students acquire the rules of classroom discourse? (3) What is the effect of inadequate learning of classroom discourse…

Significant progress has been made to enhance the oral English proficiency of International Teaching Assistants (ITAs), with the greatest strides being made in the linguistic aspects but little attention being paid to cultural communication and pedagogical dimensions. A survey of ITAs in the chemistry, mathematics, and physics departments at…