Academe has traditionally tended to polarize college employees into two camps: (1) the faculty, who educate; and (2) the staff, who provide services and entertainment. At Colby-Sawyer College, a small private liberal arts institution of 950 students in rural New Hampshire, the us-versus-them mentality was rejected in order to re-envision its…

Conflict management is a skill best learned early in life, and lays a foundation for the development of future relationships. The present study examined the strategies children use when negotiating roles in a dynamic play situation. Participants were 156 children (M age = 6.5 years) in 39 groups of four, who were videotaped in a play activity that…

This dissertation addresses the related questions of how online communication technologies affect communication in science and, more broadly, how new ways of interaction in online spaces affect how texts enact genres. Genres have been usefully thought of as typified discursive responses to recurrent social exigences, and much recent work has shown…

A central role of any educational leader is that of an accomplished communicator--one who can relate to diverse communities, promote cooperative interaction, and unify stakeholders around the larger cause of quality education for every student. This sixth volume in the "Soul of Educational Leadership" series provides innovative ideas on diplomacy…

Nearly 700 US journalism and mass communication faculty (all teaching personnel) reported their perceptions of student email use via a web-based survey. This nationwide study focused on the content of email sent by faculty to students, email's effectiveness, and email's effect on student learning. Comparisons were made based on faculty gender,…

A series of linked relationships is advanced which together suggest changes should be made to training programs for airside drivers at major airports in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. Overall, the links suggest a relationship between the number of airside incidents such as collisions at airports, the ethnic diversity evident…

This qualitative study examined the interactional communication strategies used by law enforcement officers during a hostage-taking incident at a high school. The research involved analysis of the negotiation conversation between police crisis (hostage) negotiators and a hostage taker who entered his former high school to take revenge on a…

This research analyzes the strategic process of integrated marketing communication (IMC) and its current application in US public institutions of higher education (IHEs). The basis for this research was a survey questionnaire that analyzed the impact of IMC on 42 leading US public colleges and universities (as ranked by "U.S. News & World…

This article describes a pilot project that examined the use of a two-way text messenger for deaf and hard of hearing teens and their parents. The study took place at two large inner-city public high schools and in grade 8 of their feeder school. The vast majority of the students in the study had severe to profound congenital hearing loss and were…

This study investigated how listener experience (extent of previous exposure to non-native speech) and semantic context (degree and type of semantic information available) influence measures of intelligibility, comprehensibility, and accentedness of non-native (L2) speech. Participants were 24 native English-speaking listeners, half experienced…

Lynn Zimmerman and Anastasia Trekles Milligan examine technological communication from the perspectives of two instructors, one a digital immigrant and the other a digital native. Today's students are digital natives, reared in a world permeated by interactive technology; as a result, they are used to a model of communication that is significantly…

The present study extends previous results demonstrating a relation between maternal discourse and child social understanding to include paternal discourse. Emotion understanding (EU) and theory of mind (ToM) were considered as two distinctive aspects of social understanding. Participants were 106 children (54 boys and 52 girls) studied at 3.5 and…

Many individuals with developmental disabilities show delays in the development of sophisticated communication skills. Listeners often misunderstand their unconventional means of communication, and breakdowns occur. A "communication repair" is a second attempt to communicate a message when a breakdown is encountered. Qualitative methods were…

As American schools increasingly are called on to ensure students have the skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century, school districts nationwide are responding with a renewed interest in systemic change. The revived attention notwithstanding, educators, policymakers and the public still misunderstand the true meaning of systemic change in…

In today's global environment, intercultural teams may become the most effective teams in an organization when their diversity is managed as an asset. However, because of miscommunication and conflict, intercultural teams often become dysfunctional. This experiential group exercise demonstrates how cultural dimensions such as individualism and…