This critical duoethnography takes silence in classroom discussions as a sociocultural artifact that reveals the norms of the society that upholds it. In this research, we made visible and explored the content of silence we experienced as international graduate students. We found that repeated patterns of silence in classroom discussions acted to…

During the last two decades an increasing number of international faculty specializing in different disciplines have been hired by U.S. institutions of higher education. Most of these instructors have been college educated in their native countries but have come to the United States for graduate studies and then earned doctoral degrees from U.S.…

Applying theories of cultural dimensions, teacher credibility, and nonverbal immediacy, this chapter explores classroom management techniques used by Asian female teachers to establish credibility. (Contains 1 note.)

To hold student interest, distance learning instructors need to think and present ideas visually. Presentations should be limited to three or four key points that would benefit from visual depiction. Visual aids used for presentation may be image-related, concept-related, or arbitrary graphics. Sophistication of visual aid is not as important as…

This chapter reports on a mathematics professor's experience leveraging laptops in a required intermediate statistics course with a challenging student population. Use of laptops streamlined course delivery, enhanced classroom interaction, and improved both his students' and his own overall course experience.

Being a Hispanic female faculty member in South Texas can be a challenge. This chapter discusses three pedagogical tools (caring, challenging, and consulting) that we use to create a classroom climate that enhances Hispanic students' success by engaging and motivating them to succeed in one of the poorest areas of the country.

Humor in teaching can promote a positive and cohesive class atmosphere but can also have unintended negative results if the teacher does not first develop a supportive relationship with the students. (Author)

When students do not enjoy communicating, and when teachers fail to communicate or to understand why their students are not communicating, opportunities for learning are lost. Research and theory about communication apprehension offer ways of understanding and dealing with this important barrier to learning. (MSE)

It is suggested that education is a process of relational development between students and teachers and is dependent on effective interpersonal communication. Seven stages of this relational development and nine relational skills for teachers are discussed. (Author/MSE)

The Internet environment is suitable for many types of learning activities and teaching and learning styles. Every World Wide Web-based course should provide: home page; introduction; course overview; course requirements, vital information; roles and responsibilities; assignments; schedule; resources; sample tests; teacher biography; course…

Suggests two ways to make grading of writing easier, fairer, more helpful to students: first, using minimal grades or fewer levels of quality, and, second, using criteria that spell out the features of good writing sought in the assignment. Discusses minimal grading techniques in contexts of low-stakes writing, high-stakes writing, the final…

Many college faculty are reluctant to examine and refine their own classroom communication skills, for a variety of reasons, but teachers should focus on developing the effectiveness of their classroom instruction through the student-teacher relationship. (MSE)

Mixing the academic culture of the classroom with the cultural diversity of its students often results unintentionally in an ethnocentric classroom, an extension of the mainstream Anglo culture. The teacher should know that some views of appropriate classroom behavior are likely to be foreign to some of the students. (Author/MSE)

A teacher's style of communication tells students how to interpret the instructional content and affects students' feelings toward the teacher and the class. A variety of communication styles, style levels, and units of analysis of style are discernable. (Author/MSE)

Classrooms can serve as laboratories for experimenting with collaboration rather than win-lose conflict styles. Productive conflict tactics and patterns of interaction can be used for all parties to learn effective conflict management. (Author/MSE)