American Press: Basic Communication Course Annual #16 (2004)

BCCA Contents & Abstracts, Volume 16, 2004

Editor Scott Titsworth
ISBN 978-0-89641-403-7

Turman, Paul D., & Matthew H. Barton — Bias in the Evaluation Process: Influences of Speaker Order, Speaker Quality, and Gender on Rater Error in the Performance Based Course — This study examines how variations in speaker order increases the potential for rater error in the performance based course. (1-35)

Reynolds, Dana L., Stephen K. Hunt, Cheri J. Simonds, & Craig W. Cutbirth — Written Speech Feedback in the Basic Communication Course: Are Instructors too Polite? — The present study investigates written performance feedback through the lens of politeness theory. Study 1 examined the types of comments instructors offer to students when they provide written feedback on speeches as well as the relationship between these comments and students’ grades. Study 2 extended the research project by examining students’ perceptions of instructor feedback in order to determine the types of feedback students deem the most helpful. (36-71)

Brann-Barrett, M. Tanya & Judith A. Rolls — Communication Lab Peer Facilitators: What’s in it for Them? — Peer tutors have been used extensively within the communication discipline to enhance students’ learning experiences (Hill, 1981; Webb & Lane, 1986). Research suggests that peer tutoring can have positive rewards for tutors and tutees (Goodland & Hurst, 1989; Topping, 1996). However, there is little to no research that explores the benefits received by peer tutors who run small group communication lab sessions for basic communication course students. (72-104)

Jones, Adam C., Stephen K. Hunt, Cheri J. Simonds, Mark E. Comadena, & John R. Baldwin — Speech Laboratories: An Exploratory Examination of Potential Pedagogical Effects on Studies — The purpose of this study was to examine the effects speech laboratories have on students enrolled in basic public speaking courses. Specifically, the researchers attempted to gain a student perspective about visiting a speech laboratory through qualitative methods. (105-138)

Treinen, Kristen P. — Creating a Dialogue for Change: Educating Graduate Teaching Assistants in Whiteness Studies — Research indicates that minority students are under-represented in our classroom curriculum (Churchill, 1995; Delpit, 1995; Ladson-Billings, 1994). Our schools are often entrenched in the Eurocentric model of education from content to methodology. The author discusses antiracist pedagogy and whiteness studies, offer a justification for utilizing antiracist pedagogy with work in whiteness studies in the communication classroom, and provide one model for incorporating antiracist pedagogical practice with graduate teaching assistants. This essay is intended to help create a dialogue with GTAs, basic course directors, and communication faculty about antiracist practices in the communication classroom. (139-164)

Harter, Lynn M. Erika L. Kirby, Katherine L. Hatfield, & Karla N. Kuhlman — From Spectators of Public Affairs to Agents of Social Change: Engaging Students in the Basic Course through Service-Learning — Much literature bemoans the attitudes of Generation X (and their successors) toward civic participation (e.g., Putnam, 2000) and indeed education itself (e.g., Sacks, 1996). However, we have found students to be highly engaged when they have opportunities for active learning, such as those found in well-designed service learning projects. We see this pedagogy as a small antidote to the sense of powerlessness that often pervades our culture. Drawing on diverse literatures, we explore theoretical reasons for using service-learning and illustrate its usefulness in speech communication basic courses. Our discussion is organized around two key themes: (a) the connection of self to subject matter, and (b) the connection of self to community. After discussing service learning exemplars in the basic course, we close with cautions about the use of service-learning. (165-194)

Prividera, Laura C. — Assessing Sensitivity: A Critical Analysis of Gender in Teaching Basic Communication Courses — This critical study utilized a liberal feminist perspective to examine how communication teachers talked about gender issues in their basic communication classes and displayed gender sensitivity in their pedagogical practices. In-depth interviews and observations were conducted with fifteen teachers from seven midwestern academic institutions. (195-229)

Edwards, Chad & Gregory J. Shepherd — Special Forum on the Philosophy of Teaching Education as Communication: The Pragmatist Tradition — We take the basic course in communication to be a site where associated living is experienced, and where individuals practice the democratic art of referencing and articulating their own behaviors and beliefs to those of others. This democratic practice of associated living is, as American pragmatist and educational philosopher John Dewey insisted, communication itself — “conjoint communicated experience.” In this essay, we provide an overview of this pragmatist educational metaphysic and discuss a few consequences of metaphysical beliefs about education. (230-246)

Rawlins, William K. — Teaching and Learning in the Spirit of Friendship — This article discusses how the ideals and practices of friendship can provide an edifying ethic for the interactions and relationships of educators and students in the basic communication course. It examines three facets of friendship in the Western tradition, four dialectical tensions of the educational friendship, a collection of six virtues associated with teaching as friendship, and some limitations of the educational friendship. (247-260)

Modaff, Daniel P. — Native Virtues: Traditional Sioux Philosophy and the Contemporary Basic Communication Course — Teaching and learning in the basic communication course can be informed by the traditional Sioux virtues of bravery, generosity, fortitude, and wisdom. The virtues are forwarded as a set of ideas that may equip the reader with an alternative way to think about course material, pedagogical practices, and classroom interrelationships. The essay concludes with the limitations of and concerns with the virtues in the contemporary basic course. (261-278)

LaWare, Margaret R.. — The Public Speaking Classroom as Public Space: Taking Risks and Embracing Difference — Thinking about the public speaking classroom as public space provides a generative metaphor as long as critiques of public space, particularly feminist critiques, and critical pedagogy theory are considered. (279-291)

Sprague, Jo — Special Forum on the Philosophy of Teaching: A Synthesis and Response (292-206)

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