<p> This research study examines the dynamics of student-to-student interpersonal mediated communication motives within asynchronous discussion forums. The objective is to determine the interpersonal mediated communication motives and communicator style of students enrolled in fully asynchronous community college courses with the intention to supplement, enhance, and refine the existing research in online education through the application of relevant theories and methods from the field of communication studies. Specifically, the study seeks to determine students' communication motives for consensus-building and agonistic oriented purposes. A mixed methods approach has been utilized through the implementation of a 5-point Likert scale survey, comprised of forty questions, which was provided towards the end of a traditional 16 week semester to 125 students enrolled in five fully asynchronous courses. In an attempt to discover whether students respond to their classmates' asynchronous discussion forum posts for consensus-building motives or for purposes of engaging in agonistic confrontations, a discourse analysis of various forum responses was performed after completion of the asynchronous courses. Previous studies of community building within asynchronous contexts and interpersonal communication motives research suggest that students enrolled in fully asynchronous courses will engage in student-to-student interpersonal mediated communication for the purpose of pleasure, affection, inclusion, control, companionship, habit, receiving information, participation and functional purposes. Through the implementation of the 5-point Likert-scale survey, I discovered six interpersonal mediated communication motives (inclusion, participation, affection, receiving information, functional and pleasure) of student-to-student responses within fully asynchronous discussion forums and four communicator styles (friendly, attentive, communicator image and impression leaving). The findings from the discourse analysis overwhelmingly revealed that the student-to-student interpersonal mediated communication motive for responding to discussion forum posts was most frequently correlated with the students' rationale for consensus-building as opposed to exhibiting a rationale for agonistic pluralism.</p><p> <b>Key words:</b> interpersonal mediated communication motives, communicator styles, asynchronous discussion forums, higher education, consensus-building, agonistic confrontation.</p><p>

Teaching has a primary focus on engagement with students, but paradoxically, it can be experienced as lonely, private work, in classrooms behind closed doors, with an accompanying sense of deep disconnection from peers. When six experienced teachers sought to counteract this isolation, they formed a group which embarked on a shared journey of reflection and conversation, with the purpose of increasing selfknowledge, clarifying a sense of self as teacher, extending understanding of the selfhood of other teachers, and exposing the deeper sources of meaning underlying the vocation of teacher. This study sought to describe the information, opinions and beliefs which were exchanged among participants within the group and to describe the dynamics within the group. Furthermore, it sought to identify and describe the self-perceived impact of the experience of such a group, on the vocational vitality of each of the participants. Within an interpretivist epistemology a qualitative phenomenological research approach was adopted for the study. Data were obtained from two sources, consisting of transcripts of conversations from the meetings of a collaborative reflective group and from semi-structured individual interviews with group participants. These were analysed using an inductive approach with the aid of qualitative data analysis software: Atlas ti®. Findings from the study show that a high level of trust and a sense of safety were created through the use of guiding principles for meetings. Content chosen for reflective conversations and the general experience of meetings was perceived as providing a rare opportunity for participants to discover their selfhood as teachers. They reported that this understanding was further broadened by exposure to the selfhood of other teachers. Furthermore, members of the talk group reported that participation had resulted in a lowering of their sense of professional isolation and a renewal of vitality in their teaching. It is hoped that the findings from the study will inform an understanding of the experience of dialogue in a reflective, peer group where teachers focus on exploring together “who they are” as teachers. It provides valuable insights of the personal and professional transformations which can take place for teachers participating in conversations which focus on their inner landscape. Furthermore, the study has the potential to inform South African teacher professional development programmes with approaches which focus on teacher vocational renewal and vitality.

<p> Issues of sexual assault have become pervasive across all social strata in American society. Citizens need to start having conversations regarding these issues. To combat the issue of sexual assault, children need to be educated regarding the multifaceted aspects of sex through sex education in order to understand consent and resources they have available to them. Utilizing grounded theory methodology, this thesis analyzes sex education literature provided to Palm Beach County Middle School students. Using Burke&rsquo;s theory of terministic screens and Foucauldian theories of power and control; an understanding of the ideological underpinnings of this literature and discourse were acquired. After analysis, suggestions for disclosure and sex education programs are provided.</p>

M. Ed. (Educational Management) / Negotiation has become fashionable lately. The achievement of consensus in almost every sphere has also become extremely important. Educational leaders are at present being exposed to negotiations at an increasing rate. For this reason it has become essential for all educators and especially principals to be well informed about the whole process of negotiation. This minidissertation focuses on negotiation techniques used by principals of secondary schools. Negotiation can be regarded as a dynamic process in which at least two parties, with both common and conflicting interests, try to reach an agreement. This is dependent on the changing relationships, the achieving of agreement and can also be successfully used as a mechanism to handle conflict. The mere issuing of orders is, especially among professional people who are interdependant, not always effective and the principal will therefore also have to use other methods of motivation. Attention has been given to negotiation as a managerial skill with special emphasis on the negotiation process, the elements of negotiations and the skills that have to be mastered by the negotiators. The following aspects of negotiations are exposed and discussed in this exploratory study: * Communication is an essential element of negotiation and therefore communication skills are vitally important to successful negotiation. * The personality and behaviour of the negotiator greatly influence the process of negotiation, thus knowledge of the individual negotiating and conflict-handling styles lead to successful negotiation...

The object of this research was to discover whether the related concepts of "practical certainty" (Dewey) and "going on" (Wittgenstein) might shed light on the nature of successful intercultural communication and how it is accomplished. The inquiry is significant because much of the research in the field to date is product- not process-oriented and involves models difficult to translate into practical life. The methodology involved the assumption that utility is a more suitable research goal than truth. Student-teacher interactions were taped in two kinds of class conferences at the University of New Hampshire, (1) foreign students being taught by an American, and (2) American students being taught by a Chinese woman. Participants were also interviewed. The concepts "practical certainty" and "going on" were found to shed new light on how successful intercultural communication is actually "done."

In the catalog issue of the Bulletin of Florida State University, to be published sometime during 1950, will appear a challenging innovation: the General Education course in mathematics, titled mathematics 105, will be listed under the general area of Communication through Language. This, so far as the writer is able to ascertain, will be the first time a course in mathematics has been so listed in any university catalog. It will be the purpose of this paper to examine some aspects of the historical development of mathematics to justify such a classification and to explore some of the implications of such an approach for the teaching of mathematics. / Typescript. / "July, 1950." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 26-30).

No description available.

<p> The primary purpose of this study was the exploration of social media utility as a crisis communication practice on three selected university campuses. The overarching research question for this study was &ldquo;How and what social media technologies are selected, planned for, implemented, and monitored in crisis management in selected universities?&rdquo;. This study examines how these institutions used social media during crisis, pinpoints the emergent themes, analyzes the engagement between the selected universities and their social media audience, and analyzes the effectiveness of social media during campus crisis situations.</p><p> The findings of this study include the documentation of institutional practices that contribute to successful social media crisis communication integration. These elements ultimately coalesce into the identification of a series of best practices that can help inform the field and contribute to the establishment of best practices for social media use during campus crisis situations. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)</p>

This mixed methods study investigated teacher, parent, and school leader perceptions of the impact of parent communications and expectation on teacher practices, focusing specifically on four categories: grading, communication, instructional, and curriculum practices. Quantitative data were collected through online surveys from 25 teachers in second through fifth grades, as well as 96 parents of second through fifthgraders, in five private Jewish day schools located in the Southeastern United States. Qualitative data were collected from ten teachers, ten parents, and three school leaders who provided interviews, where they elaborated on the nature of parental communications and expectations at their own schools and their perceptions of their impact on teacher practices. The findings indicated that parent communications take place with high frequency, and are initiated fairly evenly between parents and teachers. Parents and teachers differ on their perceptions of negativity of communications, with teachers reporting more negative communications than parents. A t-test was conducted on the survey items that corresponded with the four categories to compare parent and teacher responses. There were some statistically significant differences in the perceptions of parents and teachers of the impact of particular types of parent communications on teacher practices in private Jewish day schools. These included requests for reviews of a child's grade or a grade change, as well as requests for changes in the content of homework. However, the qualitative data overwhelmingly indicated that parents and teachers have similar perceptions of the impact of parents communications and. They felt that parents occasionally request certain changes, but that these changes have minimal impact in the classroom, outside of isolated, individual events. expectations The school leaders who participated in the study agreed that, for the most part, the dayto- day practices of teachers were not greatly impacted by parent communications. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.

<p> There has been a decline in public good will toward institutions of higher education for nearly four decades. Resultantly, the public, media, and politicians call for greater transparency. It would be beneficial for institutions of higher education to utilize strategic means to communicate their stories, successes and brand directly to various publics. A critical, albeit often an overlooked public, are the employees of the university. They can serve as ambassadors for the university interacting with outside publics. In this capacity, not only do employees need to know information about their organization to function well at their positions, they also need to understand the strategic direction of the organization. Strategic communication of this nature can be accomplished with them via internal communication, and that falls under the domain of the public relations entity on campus.</p><p> This study seeks to examine how senior level public relations practitioners in higher education develop and carry out their internal communication responsibilities to employees. Understanding was sought regarding the practitioners&rsquo; beliefs and practices regarding: (a) public relations as a strategic management function; (b) the role of relationship management within public relations; and (c) whether symmetrical communication is used for cultivating relationships while maintaining a feedback mechanism to adjust public relations strategies based on publics and environment.</p><p> This study also looked at common and unique elements of practice, how higher education public relations practitioners define best practices, and whether they coordinate internal communication with other entities within their college or university and analyzes some demographic data regarding the career paths and education of the practitioners. It concludes that, while the participants in the study were operating with direct reporting to the president of their respective universities, and that all participants demonstrated working in a strategic capacity, none had documented communication processes with respect to internal audiences, and few had formal methods in place to evaluate the success of their efforts. In addition, none had well-formulated and strategic processes in place with respect to whether symmetrical communication is used for cultivating relationships while maintaining a feedback mechanism to adjust public relations strategies based on publics and environment.</p><p>