An exploratory study examined the effect of gender on student evaluation ratings of journalism and mass communication instructors. Subjects were 8 professors (4 male and 4 female) who represented a wide range of teaching experience and taught a total of 243 students (108 women and 135 men) in 10 different types of classrooms. A total of 241…

Despite exhortations from public relations practitioners, theorists, and educators as to the need to equip practitioners with management skills, a review of 59 academic programs in public relations finds that most undergraduate programs appear to pay only lip service to this goal. While many programs offer no undergraduate courses specifically…

Although Chinese-speaking men and women constitute the largest group of international graduate students in the United States, contrary to expectations, some China-born communication scholars have had difficulties publishing their China studies in the United States. If a China-born scholar conducts two studies, one based on data from China and one…

Following the failure of several school levies, the Cincinnati Public School System placed a $9.83 million levy on the ballot in 1991 which passed in spite of tremendous odds against it. The Cincinnati tax levy campaign was successful largely because it adapted to the unique nature of ballot issue campaigns. First, it provided proactive leadership…

The most prevalent variable manifesting itself in schools is communication or, at least, it seems to be a most pervasive variable. What is communication? In what ways do humans communicate in schools? And how might the concept "school communication" be defined? To investigate possible ways to respond to these and other such questions,…

A quasi-experimental design was used to investigate changes in learning outcomes for students enrolled in large-lecture/break-out sections versus in self-contained sections of the basic communication course. More precisely, the study explores the relationship between communication apprehension, immediacy and learning outcomes for the two class…

To investigate the interactional behaviors of minorities when placed in a mostly white educational setting, this study focused on examining the meaning held by particular students in regard to acceptance, inclusion, and invitation into a larger group, in this case, the seventh grade at a university laboratory school in Louisiana. Of the 28…

A large government agency had been experiencing a variety of changes. The new head of the agency approached communication researchers about doing analyses of the effectiveness of communication in the agency. The researchers conducted two studies: a qualitative one to identify organizational and organizational communication themes, and a…

International public relations continues to be a rare experience in most public relations curriculums, but courses are found in journalism and business. The emphasis, however, is slightly different. Business departments emphasize international economic principles to be supported by public relations, whereas journalism stresses issues management…

Findings of a study that used discourse analysis to explore the relationship of power and involvement to experience in supervisory conferences are presented in this paper. Based on Penman's (1980) content analysis scheme, conference talk between supervisors and teachers was analyzed according to manifest and latent levels of communication that…

A study tested paths predicted by Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) in the context of interactions between 105 Chinese and 283 Anglo-Australian students and 98 academic staff in situations of potential conflict. Videotapes of student-lecturer interactions in which speakers accommodated, over-accommodated, or under-accommodated were rated by…

A study assessed the status of the undergraduate communication theory course at small and large colleges. An investigation of communication theory course descriptions (offered by 261 communication programs) found that the course is taught at both small and large colleges, but there is little general agreement about what should be covered in the…

Continuous Attitudinal Response Technology (CART) is an alternative approach to testing students' instantaneous response to teacher behaviors in the classroom. The system uses a microcomputer and video technology device that allows researchers to measure subjects' instantaneous responses to static and continuous stimuli, graphic or verbal. A…

A study assessed whether means for student evaluations of instruction tended to be lower in research methods classes than in other communication classes. Questionnaires were sent to 126 communication departments listed in the 1993 Speech Communication Association Directory and which were thought likely to require undergraduate research methods…

A study investigated the effect of drama-based instruction on the learning of social skills by student labeled as "low ability" in a 10th-grade required English class in a rural high school. Two separate classes of "low ability" 10th-grade English students in Janesville, Wisconsin, were presented with social skills training…