Student engagement in higher education has been studied from different theoretical perspectives and in different countries. Current issues include both concerns regarding students' attitudes and ambivalence and, in addition, the definition of the concept of student engagement and how various pedagogical approaches may contribute to contrasting…

Courses: Undergraduate courses in interpersonal communication, nonverbal communication, relational communication, computer-mediated communication (CMC), and intercultural communication, as well as basic communication courses. Objectives: The purpose of this activity is twofold: (1) to demonstrate how nonverbal communication shapes content and…

This article presents the results of two studies that focus on the role that threaded discussion plays in student learning. Over a period of three and one-half years, researchers conducted a series of surveys of graduate and undergraduate students at a private, nonprofit university in Southwestern Pennsylvania to determine how students viewed the…

The purpose of this study was to modify the Student Course Engagement Questionnaire (SCEQ) for use in varied teaching settings, including online graduate courses. The SCEQ-M was administered to 276 students enrolled in a variety of graduate-level education and counseling courses during the Spring 2016 semester. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA)…

Studies focusing on pre-service teachers have shown that the inclusion of the learning cycle model in a methods course result in improvement in understanding of and attitude toward the learning cycle model of inquiry. However, pre-service teachers' understanding and beliefs about the learning cycle model may remain varied and inaccurate and their…

This study investigates how final year pre-service teachers (PSTs) from several countries use social media to support their online professional learning network (PLN) activities. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, it uses a global survey and interview methods to generate fresh insights into PSTs' informally-developed online PLN practices and their…

Social networking sites (SNS) are widely used among students, where its integration in higher education is increasing across years. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze students' use of social presence (SP) expressions in blended learning environment using Facebook group as a medium of online discussion. A total of 11 students and one instructor…

Influence is a critical competency for success in the workplace. Past research has shown that two oral communication skills (listening and oral expression) are associated with interpersonal influence. This exploratory study examines the effectiveness of two pedagogies (leaderless group discussion [LGD] and oral presentation with a question and…

The website Reddit has received scant attention from educational researchers despite the presence of numerous teaching-related subreddits that host thousands of threaded conversations. The purpose of this study was to provide an initial comparison of discussions occurring in several different affinity spaces on Reddit. Because of the lack of…

This study explores the use of backchannels, real-time online conversations taking place simultaneously with spoken discussions (the front channel), as one approach to meaning-making through discussion. Using transcripts of front and backchannel discussions, we examine how undergraduate preservice teachers utilize backchannels to talk about…

Courses: This activity will work in any face-to-face communication lecture course. Objectives: By the end of the semester in a face-to-face lecture class, every student will have engaged in verbal discussion.

This paper advocates for the inclusion of big questions into the basic course curriculum. It begins by exploring the nature of big questions as those that engage pressing and perennial civic and global issues, and details their effectiveness in encouraging students and faculty to think about interpersonal responsibility and social space as…

This article reports on findings from a research study exploring the potential for democratic learning in a gallery education project which took place in the UK in 2006-7. In doing so, it also explores a pressing issue for education today: the question of young people's democratic education in a time of political crisis in Europe. The focus of the…

The authors utilise the format of a dialogue in this essay to explore the place of hip-hop in the United States College classroom. Dialogue fosters a spirit of collaboration that generates more reflective responses and can spark new ideas that would be difficult to think of individually. Previous scholarship has also argued that hip-hop is itself…

Philosophical dialogue requires an approach to teaching and learning in science that is focused on problem posing and provides space for meaning making, finding new ways of thinking and understanding and for linking science with broader human experiences. This article explores the role that philosophical dialogue can play in science lessons and…