The case study method, a technique for examining realistic organizational problems through systematic analysis, is a very useful tool in the organizational communication class. Case analysis involves the identification and examination of salient issues causing the problems that organizational members are experiencing, as well as the development of…

While much has been said and written about teaching excellence, educational research has not defined what it means to be an excellent teacher, so it is important for teachers in all subject areas to initiate and sustain a dialogue about teaching excellence. Six attributes characterize excellence in a secondary school communications teacher. First,…

Basic Speech Communication courses which emphasize public speaking are an opportunity to teach critical thinking skills in the form of critical listening. Students can be taught to analyze the evidence or ideas of others and make critical judgments about the validity or quality of materials presented, using a series of steps involving student and…

Communication is essential to the establishment and maintenance of a democracy. Democratic society is distinctive in that civic talk plays a determining role. A long tradition of civic talk exists in western democratic civilization. The Greek teacher, Protagoras, the Father of Debate, required his students to speak first on one side of an issue or…

A study examined the acceptance and effectiveness of a basic public speaking course that uses a modified Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) approach. Based on behavioristic psychology, PSI stresses mastery learning, self-pacing, the written word, student proctors, and lectures that motivate rather than just supply essential information. Five…

A study was conducted to test the belief that students would develop a better attitude toward communication models if they were depicted using computer-generated graphics than they would if traditional chalkboard depiction were used. Two hypotheses were tested: (1) that the mean attitude-towards-models score for students exposed to models via…

Listed in this catalog are 122 product descriptions from 34 states identified by state coordinators of basic skills instruction as the best developed in their states. Products include books, pamphlets, videotapes, booklets, checklists, guides, handbooks, anthologies, and computer programs. Each product was developed to improve the management, the…

The senior seminar course in speech communication at Ripon College (Wisconsin) helps students to draw together their educational experiences and to focus on the task of planning for immediate and long-term career goals. In its initial year, it was taught in a two-semester sequence. The first semester focused on the discipline and the profession…

Goal setting and contract grading are two instructional strategies that can provide individualized instruction within more traditional speech classroom settings. Individualized instruction focuses on the unique characteristics and needs of the learner, acknowledges that all students do not learn in the same way, meets the needs of the gifted…

Prompted by data from a national survey indicating that communication apprehension (CA) was higher among pharmacy students than among the general population, West Virginia University developed a communication course especially to meet the needs of these students. The course was later modified by Auburn University. A study investigated the…

The Personalized System of Instruction (PSI), a system that combines the strengths of basic learning, individual instruction, and personalized relationships, all at low cost, is an attractive alternative for the basic speech communication course. It involves mastery learning, self-pacing, stress on the written word, instructor assistants, and the…

An effective communication learning experience is the nonverbal communication field trip in organizational settings. Objectives for this activity include defining and describing nonverbal areas such as "proxemics,""chronemics,""objectics,""kinesics,""haptics," and "vocalics," and to observe these areas in an organizational setting. The experience…

As communication/English curricula pass from a period of great diversity to one of greater centrality, educators need to find a more reasoned direction to guide curricular decision making. Many of the current reports on the state of education refer to the importance of oral communication skills, but such skills have not received their rightful…

A sample of 75 teacher education students participating in a speech proficiency test was used to investigate the relationship between speech proficiency and self-concept. The students took the Tennessee Self Concept Scale after being divided into the following three groups: students judged satisfactory on the speech proficiency test, students…

A moot court program developed for undergraduate debaters at Ball State University (Indiana) is presented. Following a brief introduction that establishes the benefits of such a program for the students and the department of communication, the first section of the paper explains how the moot court concept was modified to emphasize communication…