NCA Speaker Series: Developing Ideas for Teaching and Research

In light of NCA’s summer event cancellations due to COVID-19, NCA has developed a special speaker series. This series is aimed at offering faculty and students the opportunity to learn about new directions in Communication research and teaching, and to spark ideas about their own research, teaching, and course/program offerings. The series began June 1, 2020 with speakers presenting a seminar each full week of June. Each seminar is comprised of five virtual seminars, hosted on the NCA website. Seminar leaders also provide readings to accompany each seminar.

Seminar leaders include Scott Myers (West Virginia University), Amy Clark (University of Virginia’s College at Wise), Richard Craig (George Mason University), and Jimmie Manning (University of Nevada, Reno). Seminar topics, descriptions, and dates are as follows:

Week 1: Dates: June 1-5

Scott Myers

Scott A. Myers, Ph.D.
Professor, Chair, and Peggy Rardin McConnell Endowed Teaching Chair
Department of Communication Studies
West Virginia University

Learning the Three C’s: Becoming a Competent Classroom Communicator

The purpose of this seminar is to reflect on, and develop further, our classroom teaching practices and behaviors, with a particular focus on improving the ways in which we communicate with our students and gaining a perspective on how students view us through our classroom communication. This seminar will cover five topics, which are developing a sense of teaching effectiveness, teaching from a student perspective, teaching from a rhetorical perspective, teaching from a relational perspective, and teaching from a presentational traits perspective.

Part I

Readings

(*Additional suggested reading)

​Homework

1. Based on the readings and your teaching experience, how would you conceptualize teaching effectiveness? Which characteristics of teaching effectiveness do you exemplify?

2. To what extent is your teaching effectiveness dependent on your communication behaviors? How can you change or modify your behaviors to become a(n) (more ) effective instructor?

3. Complete the questionnaire on pages 305-306 in the Briggs and Pinola (1985) article. What is your primary educational philosophy? How does this philosophy inform your teaching effectiveness?

4. Go to www.teachingperspectives.com/tpi/, register, and complete the Teaching Perspectives Inventory. What is your dominant perspective? How does this perspective inform your teaching effectiveness?

5. Based on today’s session, what is one thing you could do when the Fall 2020 semester begins to increase your teaching effectiveness?

Suggested Resources

Part II

Readings

(*Additional suggested reading)

Homework

1. How important is it to you that your students consider you to possess credibility, attraction, and homophily? Why? How important is it for students to be motivated to communicate with you for relational, functional, participatory, excuse making, or sycophantic reasons? Why?

2. To what extent is this importance linked or associated with your perceptions of your own teaching effectiveness?

3. What can you do strategically to highlight your credibility, attraction, and homophily? What can you do to encourage your students to communicate with you?

4. How can your awareness of student impressions and student motives to communicate influence your development of a supportive, connected, and personalized classroom climate? 

5. Based on today’s session, what is one thing you could do to encourage your students to communicate with you beginning with the Fall 2020 first day of class?

Suggested Resources

Part III

Readings

(*Additional suggested reading)

Homework

1. How important is it to you that your students consider you to use clarity, relevance, and humor? Why?

2. How often do you monitor your use of clarity, relevance, and humor? What are your strengths in using these rhetorical behaviors? What are your weaknesses in using these rhetorical behaviors?

3. What are some ways in which you can improve your use of clarity and relevance behaviors? 

4. To what extent does your use of humor seem appropriate in the classroom? How effective is this use of appropriate humor? Are there times when you use inappropriate humor? If so, for what reason(s)?

5. Based on today’s session, how can you begin to incorporate clarity, relevance, or humor into your teaching repertoire for Fall 2020?

Suggested Resources

Part IV

Readings

(*Additional suggested reading)

Homework

1. How important is it to you that your students consider you to use immediacy, affinity seeking, and confirmation? Why?

2. Of the numerous verbal and nonverbal immediacy behaviors which instructors can use, which behaviors are easier for you to use? Which behaviors are more difficult for you to use? Which behaviors appear to be more sincere and natural for you to use?

3. To what extent are you comfortable using affinity-seeking strategies with your students? Which strategies would be the most effective for you in your classes? Would you use the same strategies to increase liking for both you and your content matter?

4. How willing are you to behave in a confirming manner toward your students? To what extent are you able to do so?

5. Based on today’s session, how can you begin to incorporate immediacy, affinity seeking, or confirmation into your teaching repertoire for Fall 2020?

Suggested Resources

Part V

Readings

(*Additional suggested reading)

Homework

1. Complete the Communicator Style Measure. What is your cluster? Of the attributes in your cluster, which ones are the recommended attributes for teaching?

2. As a composite style, are you an actor, a human, or an authority? Based on your past teaching experiences, what are the pros and cons of utilizing this composite style?

3. Based on today’s session, what steps can you take to ensure that you are employing the appropriate communicator style attributes for Fall 2020?

4. Read the Cayanus and Martin chapter. After reading this chapter, how likely are you to increase your self-disclosure in your teaching?

5. Taking this week’s seminar into consideration, what is the most valuable take-away? How can you apply this take-away to your future teaching endeavors?

Suggested Resources

Amy Clark

Amy D. Clark, Ph.D. 
Professor and Chair, Department of Communication Studies 
Co-Director, Center for Appalachian Studies
Director, Appalachian Writing Project
University of Virginia's College at Wise

The Rhetoric of Death in Central Appalachia from Mid-19th Century to Early 20th Century: A Case Study in Teaching and Researching Rhetorical History

The material culture of death, such as gravestones, records, and death photography, may be considered rhetorical memory spaces that were created with the expectation of visual interpretation, a way of interacting with the living. This seminar will explore a complex system of signs inherent in the 19th century gravestones of an enslaved community, as well as those in death photography, records, and other artifacts belonging to the White family who owned the property. The seminar will also include a tour of the site and artifacts used in this study, which offer a cultural understanding of a marginalized community whose histories may be revised by a close reading of symbols left behind. 

Part III

Materials

Session References

Richard Craig

Richard T. Craig, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Communication
Director, Master's Program
George Mason University

"Is That How They See Me?”: Discussing Media Representations of Marginalized Groups

By telling stories to inform or entertain, media have the ability to present images of individuals and groups, as well as ideologies that influence audience understandings of others and self. This seminar will explore how the US media have historically framed marginalized US groups. This seminar will challenge our knowledge and thoughts about how media representations may shape a person's sense of value and belonging dependent upon the media content they regularly consume.

Part I

Materials

Part II

Materials

Part III

Materials

Part IV

Materials

Part V

Materials

Jimmie Manning

Jimmie Manning, Ph.D.  
Chair and Professor, Communication Studies
School of Social Research & Justice Studies
University of Nevada, Reno

Extending and Expanding Notions of 'Family' in the Interpersonal and Family Communication Classroom

This seminar examines how families are defined and represented in interpersonal and family communication classrooms. Including a mix of classic and hot-off-the-press readings as well as classroom-tested teaching activities, this seminar will consider how they can help students to expand their understanding of what a family is and how communication plays a vital role in that understanding. Importantly, the seminar also focuses on diversity and inclusion in family communication studies, especially in the sense of who is and is not represented in family communication theory.

Part I

Readings

Part II

Readings

Part III

Readings

Part IV

Readings

  • Boylorn, R. M. (2013). Four. In Sweetwater: Black women and narratives of resilience (pp. 34-39). Peter Lang.
  • Calafell, B. M., & Castaneda, N. (Forthcoming). Performance. In J. Manning, J. Allen, & K. J. Denker (Eds.), Family communication as Metaphors for thinking about family communication (pp. 1-11). Wiley.
  • Chawla, D. (Forthcoming). Object. In J. Manning, J. Allen, & K. J. Denker (Eds.), Family communication as Metaphors for thinking about family communication (pp. 1-14). Wiley.
  • McAlister, J. F. (2011). Figural materialism: Renovating marriage through the American family home. Southern Communication Journal, 76(4), 279-304.

Part V

Readings