Engagement has received significant research attention in recent years in an effort to better understand student achievement and the lack of it. Oral participation is generally highly valued in American classrooms and is often thought to be a good indicator of students' engagement in learning. As a result, many college instructors require and/or…

Outlines some recent theoretical discussions of silence as communication. Describes nine exercises the speech communication instructor can use to teach silence and shows which specific function of silence each exercise teaches. (JMF)

Provides a rationale for the development of a classification and retrieval system for games and exercises in speech communication, a model of a classification and retrieval system in the area of nonverbal communication and, a set of guidelines for the development of a classification and retrieval system for other areas of speech communication.…

Presents abbreviated abstracts of selected documents from the 1979-81 issues of "Resources in Education." Covers the following categories: research studies; analysis systems for the classroom; nonverbal communication in the library; nonverbal deception studies; and teaching nonverbal communication. (PD)

Hypothesized that college students' learning from a videotaped lecture will be enhanced by the instructors' nonverbal expressiveness. Results support a positive effect for affective learning and suggest that nonverbal expressiveness directly influences attitudes toward the lecturer and the videotaped message. (PD)

Tested a model of secondary and college students' affective learning (attitudes toward course, subject, teachers) as a function of behavior alternation techniques (BATs) and teacher nonverbal immediacy (concern for students). Found a positive relationship among teachers' use of BATs, immediacy, and students' affective learning. (PD)

Analyzed the following teacher communication behaviors: nonverbal immediacy, interpersonal solidarity, and communicator style. Studies suggest that perceptions of instructor communication variables differentiate effective and less effective instructors. (PD)