This article starts from the observation that Socratic dialogues in the Nelson-Heckmann tradition can create a sense of belonging or community among participants. This observation has led me to the current argument that Socratic dialogue offers an alternative to more prominent forms of conversation, which I have called 'discussion' and 'discourse…

In this brief forum article, the authors suggest that in order to truly understand communication education, both interpersonal and instructional variables must be analyzed. Instructors, researchers, and scholars need to find balance between content and relationship aspects while being aware of context boundaries to truly assist in maximizing…

Replication is a fundamental principle of social science, enabling researchers to verify the accuracy of empirical findings, clarify the conditions under which phenomena occur, and further validate the social significance of research (Brandt et al., 2014). However, a lack of replication research has been published in instructional communication…

Instructional communication (IC) scholars have made significant contributions to the study of educational outcomes by creating a deep understanding of the teacher-student relationship (Mottet & Beebe, 2006). IC research published in "Communication Education" and other outlets therefore appropriately emphasizes interpersonal…

Communication is, by its nature, inherently interdisciplinary. In no other subfield of the discipline is this truer than instructional communication. To that end, instructional communication scholars contribute to the understanding of classroom dynamics and effective methods for facilitating learning. A close examination of that work highlights…

"Communication Education's" commitment to publishing rigorous instructional communication research with a diversity of methods is clear in its publication of quantitative, qualitative, and critical articles (Witt, 2012). Here, Andrea Meluch argues that the trends in the most recent research published within this journal indicate a lack…

As ways that communication scholars can prepare students to meet challenges and transform society are considered, for the greater good, the authors argue that it is essential to consider the realm of health communication (Morreale, Valenzano, & Bauer, 2016). The authors focus on a growing need for rigorous research as a cornerstone of…

In this paper, the author argues that the theoretical groundings of code-switching are flawed, in that they rely on a flawed understanding of language. For code-switching to function as described by sociologists and educators, language would have to be a skill--and particular languages and dialects to be discrete subsets of this skill--to be…

Research has strongly supported the role of classroom talk as a valuable teaching and learning tool. Carefully crafted teacher-student discussions that encourage broad student participation and knowledge building correlate with increased knowledge generation and higher academic achievement. To better understand classroom talk as an instructional…

This paper argues for a broadening of the analytic scope of research on L2 interactional competence so as to embrace systematic investigation of the linguistic resources that L2 speakers put to use for the specific purpose of coordinating social interaction. The paper first offers a conceptualisation of interactional competence in terms of…

This article proposes that the learning environment matters, and that there are qualitative differences in online versus face-to-face classes. While online education provides some benefits, they also narrow the opportunities for dialectical conflict that thoroughly challenge student thinking, an interaction more likely to be found in real-time…

Reflective career conversations are a necessary instrument in the career guidance of students in vocational education. These conversations help students to learn from their (work) experiences and gain a better understanding of their motives on the labour market. Research shows that in a society in which change seems to become the only constant…

This essay presents a critical commentary on McCroskey et al.'s (2004) general model of instructional communication. In particular, five points are examined which make explicit and problematize the meta-theoretical assumptions of the model. Comments call attention to the limitations of the model and argue for a broader approach to…

Leveraging is often described as the process of using the home and community languages of children and youth as a tool to access the "academic" or "standard" varieties of languages valued in schools. In this vein, researchers have called on practitioners to leverage the stigmatized language practices of children and youth in…

Educational systems endemic of demotivation might signify a stagnating rather than nurturing ecology of learning, due in part to an obstruction in the loops of shared information between the organisms within these systems, i.e., teachers, educational researchers, teacher educators, school administrators, and educational policymakers. Working…