Democracy is in trouble. For the last 10 years, the number of democratizing countries dropped by almost half to 16, hosting a mere 4% of the global population. Faced with these global trends, as well as democracy's challenges during the first two decades of the twenty-first century, how can communication studies contribute to the study of civic…

For decades, instructional communication scholars have relied predominantly on cross-sectional survey methods to generate empirical associations between effective teaching and student learning. These studies typically correlate students' perceptions of their instructor's teaching behaviors with subjective self-report assessments of their own…

This study examined how, and under what conditions, teacher clarity (i.e., structure/signaling) impacts student learning. One hundred and forty eight students reported their propensity to approach their studies with a mastery orientation and were randomly exposed to a lesson on persuasion that was either signaled or not. After the lesson, students…

Drawing on Lave & Wenger's concept of situated learning and Apple's premise that daily interactions at school construct what is considered legitimate knowledge, this article examines the discourses of teaching and learning circulating among students. Through interviews and open-ended, online surveys, we trace how nine different discourses of…

In response to the articles in this forum, the authors write that they were struck by the way most of the authors assumed that generations are stable entities characterized by readily identifiable factors, such as age, attitudes or circumstances. Following a constitutive philosophy of communication and instruction (Fassett & Warren, 2007;…

Describes a speech assignment in which students describe a geometric figure well enough so that listeners can then draw the figure. Exercise is based on philosophy of teaching and learning in W. Timothy Gallwey's "The Inner Game of Tennis." (PD)

Indicates that students were favorably impressed with their videodisc learning experience, though the process of reaching consensus seemed to require the re-ordering of individual rankings. Discusses the relationships between design strategy, student interaction in the learning process, and funding educational technology. (JD)

Discusses the goals, the theoretical base, and the implementation of the Personalized System of Instruction in speech communication courses. (MH)

Emphasizes the need in communication education to balance the teaching of specific terminal behaviors with the teaching of cognitive learning. Suggests teaching methods for implementing cognitive goals in the classroom. (MH)

Suggests two means of humanizing objectives and examines the cognitive and affective responses of students to behavioral objectives for a unit of instruction in a basic speech communication course. (MH)

Investigates the effects of teacher nonverbal immediacy and strategy type on college students' likelihood of resisting teacher compliance-gaining attempts. Suggests that the relative effectiveness of prosocial strategies and antisocial strategies may be contingent on teachers' nonverbal immediacy, with students reporting a greater likelihood of…