Responds to criticism concerning the communication research conducted by the author about urban schools and immigrant families. The author describes the research approach, defends the lack of parental and community data as appropriate for the stage the study was in, and explains the research is too early to subscribe to the political and…

Addresses the concerns of first-grade teachers about the implementation of a holistic literature-based reading series. Notes that the teachers in the "conversation group" had not been direct participants in the adoption decision. Suggests that the conversation group enabled the teachers to assimilate change through the sharing of the…

Proposes three models of course-specific curricula and a content-curriculum model for undergraduate public-relations education, and proposes core and elective areas for a master's of public-relations curriculum. Agrees that public-relations curricula should have a broad liberal arts and science basis, and recommended more attention to ethics,…

This study was part of a two-year review regarding the use of Web-based case conferencing to enhance, extend, and transform the learning of preservice teachers in an introductory educational psychology course. First, Web conferencing enhanced the learning opportunities within educational psychology by providing an electronically shared space for…

The aim of the study was to gain insight into the occurrence of different types of peer interaction and particularly the types of interaction beneficial for learning in different collaborative learning environments. Based on theoretical notions related to collaborative learning and peer interaction, a coding scheme was developed to analyze the…

This study goes beyond student perceptions of online learning experiences, satisfaction, and attitudes, to examine the actual participation and dynamics that occur in online discussions and their relationship to student learning outcomes. A content analysis approach was used to investigate students' socio-cognitive processes in an online…

In April, 1991, Timothy McGuire, a third year student at Georgetown University Law Center, published an article in the Georgetown Weekly Law Review entitled "Admissions Apartheid," which accused the admissions office at Georgetown of admitting minority students who were less qualified than white students. The analysis provided in this…

This study examined the perceptions of a cohort of students, faculty, staff, and administrators concerning the vertical and horizontal flow of information at a selected university. Seventeen students, six faculty, five staff, and six administrators participated in the study. Q-methodology served as the data analytic procedure and Q-sorts were…

A study determined the viability and effectiveness of the Computerized Competent Speaker Evaluation System. A total of 659 comments made by undergraduate students about the paper version of the Competent Speaker Speech Evaluation Form were subjected to two Q sorts. The 635 comments that emerged were incorporated into the evaluation system during…

This digest focuses on verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors in the college classroom. The digest reviews research on the kinds of behaviors instructors, many of whom are graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), exhibit, and students' reactions to and attitudes about those behaviors. The digest also reviews research on teacher immediacy…

Noting the lack of basic information necessary to begin to make conclusions about a home schooled child's social contacts, a study investigated the social networks of home vs. public schooled children (with a child's "social network" defined as all of the people who interact on a regular basis with the child at least once a month). The…

A series of three studies examined the validity of certain features of computer person and non-computer person stereotypes, including gender, academic achievement, communication apprehension, and receiver apprehension. First a pilot study developed a computer attitude estimate (CAE) scale and survey method. Subjects were 47 high school students…

The Media and Technology section of these proceedings contains the following six papers: "The Effects of Tabular and Graphical Display Formats on Time Spent Processing Statistics" (James D. Kelly); "Program Choice in a Broadband Environment" (Steven S. Wildman and Nancy Y. Lee); "Visual Crosstabs: A Technique for Enriching Information Graphics"…

A study investigated the magnitude of the relationship between measures of teacher immediacy and teacher enthusiasm and their relative contributions to student evaluations of instruction (SEI) and students' course grades. It was argued that immediacy and enthusiasm are descriptors of the two dimensions of effective college teaching espoused by…

A study examined the process of putting together a class play and assessed how the performance of the play affected the self-esteem of a first-grade class. Subjects, 21 students representing diverse demographic factors, completed two self-esteem measures (a self-evaluation instrument and an interview) before and after the theater production. Over…