1st Edition

Teaching First-Year Communication Courses Paradigms and Innovations

Edited By Pat J. Gehrke Copyright 2017
    170 Pages
    by Routledge

    170 Pages
    by Routledge

    In this book, eleven teacher-scholars of communication provide a robust study of the challenges and opportunities facing those who teach first-year communication courses. The first half of the volume offers paradigmatic analyses, including a survey of the ecology of the first-year course, a plea to integrate our first-year courses into our research agendas, a study of the gap between scholarship and pedagogy within rhetoric, a proposal for seven core competencies to unify the various first-year communication courses, and an argument for a critical communication paradigm. The second half details innovations in classroom practice, such as the teaching techniques of social justice pedagogues, team-based learning as a model for the public speaking course, response and feedback techniques in teaching public speaking at the University of Copenhagen, teaching online speech as a new course focused on the unique challenges of digital communication, and the role of oral interpretation and performance classes in the first-year curriculum. Finally, this volume concludes with the editor’s manifesto for teaching public speaking. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Review of Communication.

    Introduction Pat J. Gehrke

    Part I: Paradigms for First-Year Communication Courses

    1. Understanding the ecology of the public speaking course William M. Keith

    2. Beyond basic: Developing our work in and through the introductory communication course Deanna L. Fassett

    3. The gap between rhetorical education and civic discourse Craig Rood

    4. The case for core competencies in introductory communication courses Isa N. Engleberg

    5. An unsettled bookcase: A critical paradigmatic approach to connect theory and pedagogy Nicholas A. Zoffel

    Part II: Innovations in Classroom Practice

    6. Socially constructing learning space: Communication theory and pedagogy for social justice Juliane Mora

    7. Team-based learning for the basic communication course: A transformative pedagogical approach Luke Lefebvre

    8. Practices of response in public speaking: The transformation of revision techniques into oral feedback Jette Barnholdt Hansen

    9. It’s not the same thing: Considering a path forward for teaching public speaking online Susan Ward

    10. The value of literature in introducing performance studies Tracy Stephenson Shaffer

    Epilogue: a manifesto for teaching public speaking Pat J. Gehrke

    Biography

    Pat J. Gehrke is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of South Carolina, USA. He has two decades of experience in teaching communication, has directed first-year communication courses, and has conducted system-wide communication competency assessments. He publishes in the history of communication studies and communication ethics, including The Ethics and Politics of Speech (2009).