In everyday teaching, the mathematical meaning of new knowledge is frequently devalued during ritualized formats of communication and replaced by social conventions. Specific aspects of the problem of meaning development were investigated in two second-grade teaching cases. These were used to develop decisive requirements for maintenance of an…

Research into computer-supported collaborative working (CSCW) and computer-supported cooperative learning (CSCL) traditionally emphasize their differences, but each research domain can offer insights into the other. This article draws on both research areas to create a framework based on activity theory for applying communication technology to…

Compared comprehension of novel communicative signs to assist 2.5- and 3-year-old humans, chimpanzees, and orangutans find hidden objects during a hiding-finding game. Found that children at both ages performed above chance with all signs. No ape performed above chance for any signs not known before the experiment despite three times as many…

Describes three rhetorical strategies used by postmodern corporations to construct social realities and obscure individual causation and control: decentering, deindividuation, and distanciation. Shows that the postmodern corporation mediates and controls the reality of individuals; therefore it, and not its members, should be viewed as morally…

Examines the perspectives of both employees and senior managers in one organization, finding a shared agreement among the majority of participants that communication between advisory panels representing diverse groups of employees and senior managers resulted in a shared understanding and commitment to diversity. Identifies positive effects of the…

Suggests two avenues of guidance for organizations adopting a multicultural approach: (1) businesses can profit from experiences in academia, where researchers have outlined areas of difficulty (for example, sharing power and valuing difference); and (2) industries' own team management theory (which dismantles hierarchical structures in favor of…

Updates a 1983 analysis of 58 knowledge gap studies, adding 39 studies and pointing out innovative ways to improve research in the area. Notes serious consequences of the persistence of knowledge inequalities, with gaps in public affairs and health knowledge having a severe impact on groups most negatively affected by the rapid and accelerating…

Examines undergraduate students' assessments of social-sexual messages in a fictitious newsletter that used suggestive remarks. Indicates: messages conveying sexual interest explicitly were perceived as more harassing than those conveying interest implicitly; explicit sexual messages were rated more harassing when initiated by supervisors or when…

Finds significant gains in empathy as a trait, attitude, and behavior for students completing a course in "Intercultural Communication," and significant gains in empathy as an attitude and behavior for basic speech course students receiving interpersonal communication instruction infused with diversity. Finds no significant gains in empathy for…

Presents a roundtable discussion by researchers in business communication of research methodology issues. Discusses what is gained and lost when classifying data; how to proceed if journal reviewers ask contributors to rethink their methodology; whether methodology itself can be challenged; and how readership of a journal can impact methodological…

Investigates administrative training and leadership practices used by communication department chairpersons. Examines the number of women chairpersons, differences in administrative training activities for men as compared to women chairpersons, and whether leadership practices differ according to length of term, gender, institution size,…

Considers the two main discourses about broadcasting in the United Kingdom and their expressions in terms of law and regulatory policy. Shows a shift in emphasis from sustenance of a national culture towards an external internationalization and an internal pluralism. Demonstrates evidence of strong and increasing state intervention in the symbolic…

Examines the "reported speech" (in which speakers quote the speech of others or themselves) of college students concerning race. Finds that African Americans discursively portray Whites as unwilling to admit racism and stereotyping; and Whites frame African Americans as exaggerating racism or overemphasizing their ethnicity. Claims…

Shows that, for women, the use of thinness-depicting and thinness-promoting (TDP) media predicted disordered-eating symptomatology, drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, and ineffectiveness. Shows that TDP media use predicted men's endorsement of personal thinness and dieting and select attitudes in favor of thinness and dieting for women.…

Analysis of online discussions in a mixed-mode college course (print, seminar, online, video) revealed the following: (1) online preparation for the seminar resulted in superior presentations; (2) online communication about class tasks prepared students for later technology use; and (3) prosocial learner behavior, modeled on teacher behavior,…