A survey of teachers' perceptions of student competencies, course content, instructional methods, and evaluation procedures was conducted to determine if previously reported conclusions about secondary school speech curricula had changed and if there were differences between the curricula in large and small high schools. The survey instrument was…

A field study conducted in Israel sought to identify emblematic gestures (body movements that convey specific messages) that are recognized and used by Hebrew speakers. Twenty-six gestures commonly used in classroom interaction were selected for testing, using Schneller's form, "Investigations of Interpersonal Communication in Israel."…

To extend the resistance-to-persuasion literature into a context relevant to public relations, a study examined the reactions of 147 Michigan State University students after viewing edited versions of President Ronald Reagan's televised address of February 26, 1986. Reagan's address, concerning his request for public support of an increase in…

Presented is an interactional analysis of preschool circle time that builds on the view of classrooms as social systems within the broader culture of schooling. In the preschool studied, 18 children, 2 teachers, and several student teachers learned to use circle time together. The head teacher's approach to circle time was a developmental one,…

Cultural imperialism is seen not as a static phenomenon but as a dynamic process in which the more developed countries (the dominating "centers" of the world system) influence the less developed countries (the dominated "periphery" of the system). In this process the more developed countries produce artifacts and content that…

As part of a research project on teacher power in the classroom, a study examined behavior alteration techniques (BATs) and behavior representative messages (BAMs) used by elementary and secondary school teachers in classroom management. In the first phase of the study, 177 college students generated lists of BATs and BAMs, and then, working in…

Proceedings drawn from a conference on business communication, the 21 papers in this collection are grouped under the headings Corporate Tower Views, Bridging the Gap, and Ivory Tower Views to better reflect the joint concerns of professional communicators on the job as well as the concerns of those who teach business communication. Among the…

To explain evidence that females receive higher grades in communication courses than males, one researcher has posed a competence/compliance paradox: either, women are more competent communicators and are only judged to be less competent in public life because of prejudice, or, women are not as competent as men in communication as demonstrated in…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 17 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the symbolic processing of continuity and change using the case of Carl F. H. Henry, (2) rhetorical strategies and image projection in John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign, (3) the…

The continuing inability of measures of personality to predict communicative or other types of behaviors has forced researchers to seek alternative ways of measuring. One alternative consists of a measure of four types of causal attribution in hypothetically crucial situations in five types of relationships of humans. The type of relationship in…

In the past, many communication consultants have been "speech coaches," who helped clients to organize messages, construct arguments, and deliver speeches. Today, however, the role of communication specialists as management consultants has broadened in scope. To accommodate the demands of this enlarged role, communication consultants…

To determine the public's responses to the 1988 presidential debates, the System for the Multiple Level Observation of Groups (SYMLOG) was used to analyze how values positions connected to interpersonal styles. Subjects, 157 students from either a mid-sized Southern university or a large Midwestern university and 21 non-students drawn from people…

The purpose of this publication is to stimulate interest in nontraditional environmental education (EE) research that has escaped the attention that such a growing body of works deserves. Abstracts of masters theses and doctoral dissertations in this volume include: (1) descriptions and development plans for EE areas; (2) studies dealing with…

The computerized group decision making system has potential to become an important part of an organization, but the research done thus far in this area is unfocused, lacks rigor and a theoretical base, and disregards the communication component of the technology except on the most pragmatic, fundamental level. A review of the research makes clear…

Edward Hall's long accepted theories of proxemics, developed in the mid-sixties of this century, promoted the idea that culture plays the definitive role in determining how different individuals use personal space. Contact cultures, inhabited by people who are comfortable with touching and close contact, include those of Arabia, Latin America, and…