BCCA Contents & Abstracts, Volume 18, 2006

Editor Scott Titsworth
ISBN 978-0-89641-429-7

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    Carlson, Robert E., Karen Kangas Dwyer, Shereen G. Bingham, Ana M. Cruz, Marshall Prisbell, Dennis A. Fuss — Connected Classroom Climate and Communication Apprehension: Correlations and Implications of the Basic CourseAlthough scholars have recommended increasing rela¬tional variables in the classroom such as familiarity, acquaintance level, and collaboration to help students moderate communication apprehension, few, if any, academic studies have investigated the relationship between communication apprehension and a supportive climate among students in the college classroom. Self-report data were collected from 523 undergraduate students from a midwestern university who participated in a large curriculum assessment program using the Connected Classroom Climate Inventory (CCCI) and the PRCA-24. (1-27)

  • Prividera, Laura C. — Suppressing Cultural Sensitivity: The Role of Whiteness in Instructors’ Course Content and Pedagogical PracticesResearch indicates that students of color often experience marginalization in their academic pursuits at predominantly white institutions. This study utilized critical whiteness studies to examine how communication teachers who instructed basic courses enacted cultural sensitivity in their course content and pedagogical practices. Fifteen faculty at seven academic institu¬tions were interviewed about their teaching practices. (28-62)

  • Worley, David W. & Debra A. Worley — The First year Experience (FYE) and the Basic Communication Course: Insights from Theory and Practice Institutions of higher learning increasingly focus on the first year experience, given the twin needs of persistence and retention. In view of this renewed emphasis, this essay provides insights from theory and practice exploring how the basic oral communication course can adapt existing basic course content and pedagogy, as informed by the standards established by the National Communication Association, to more effectively address the first year experience. (63-101)

  • Williams, David E. & Narissra M. Punyanunt-Carter — Speaking Assignment Options: Enhancing Student Involvement in the Learning ProcessThis article reports on the use of speaking assignment options implemented at Texas Tech University. Students in the public speaking classes were given the option of delivering a manuscript speech or a reasoned response. The rationale for the assignment options is that students will be more motivated to perform an assignment that they have a choice in and seen more personal benefit in. The paper will address each assignment, how the speaking assignment options were implemented and some results from a survey administered to the students who completed the speaking assignment options exercise. (102-116)

  • Durham, Wesley T. & Adam C. Jones — Undergraduate Teaching Assistants and Their Use of Nonverbal Immediacy Behaviors in the Basic Communication CourseOver the past two decades, perhaps no instructional communication topic has been researched as thoroughly as teacher immediacy. However, one important area of the existing teacher immediacy literature that remains underdeveloped is how undergraduate teaching assistants enact immediacy behaviors, and how, if at all, students respond to these teaching assistants differently based on the enactment of these behaviors. Thus, the purpose of this investigation was to gain a clearer understanding as to what, if any, immediacy behaviors are used by undergraduate teaching assistants in the basic communication course at a large Midwestern university. (117-147)

  • Wahl, Shawn T. & Chad Edwards — Enacting a Pragmatist Educational Metaphysic through Civic Engagement in the Basic Media Studies CourseThe authors argue that in order to help forward John Dewey’s vision of a pragmatist educational metaphysic, civic engagement through service learning in the basic media studies communication course is a possible plan of action. Specifically, we focus on basic media studies communication courses and discuss ways to implement civic-oriented service learn ing activities for the purposes of fostering greater civic engagement. This essay is ontologically and epistemologically important as it adds to our scholarly perspective of the service learning experience for teacher, student, and community, while also contributing knowledge about the inquiry process of basic com¬munication course scholarship. (148-173)

  • Limon, M. Sean, Philip J. Aust & Lance R. Lippert — Instructors Students, Managers, and the Basic Organizational Communication Course: Are We All Working Together or Working Apart?Three studies were conducted to determine the extent of overlap between basic organizational communication textbook content (1990-2002), student perceptions of basic organizational communication knowledge and skills important for the workplace, and managerial expectations of communication knowledge and skills for graduates. (174-209)

Forum on Discourses of the Basic Course

  • Preston, Marlene M. & Rachel Holloway — Case Study of a Basic Course: Using Assessment to Legitimize Innovation.(283-302)

  • Titsworth, Scott, Ben Bates & Pam Kinneston, Kenneth Burke — The Basic Communication Course, and Applied Scholarship. (303-315)

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