Donald H. Wulff

Research in communication and instruction: Categorization and synthesis

This essay categorizes and synthesizes 186 empirical studies in the area of communication and instruction published from 1974 to 1982. The studies are classified into six categories: Teacher Characteristics, Student Characteristics, Teaching Strategies, Speech Criticism and Student Evaluation, Speech Communication Content, and Speech Communication Programs. One‐hundred and four of the studies were communication education‐related and 82 were instruction communication studies. Concluding comments are made regarding the status of the area of study.

“Of Course I'm Communicating; I Lecture Every Day”: enhancing teaching and learning in introductory statistics

This article focuses on one instructors evolution from formal lecturing to interactive teaching and learning in a statistics course. Student perception data are used to demonstrate the instructors use of communication to align the content, students, and instructor throughout the course. Results indicate that the students learned, that communication in the alignment process played a role in the learning, and that the instructor used four key categories of communication: encouraging open communication, demonstrating examples interactively, structuring opportunities for application through problem-solving, and engaging students in reflection about their learning. The article concludes with the instructors reflections on how communication and the approach to teaching and learning changed as a result of conducting the scholarship of teaching and learning in the course.

The interface between communication and instruction: Communication foundations for a university instructional development center

The development of the University of Washingtons Center for Instructional Development and Research clearly illustrates an active interface between communication and instruction. Using their experience in this context, the authors provide specific examples of the application of selected communication concepts which influence their day‐to‐day operations. They also illustrate how a communication perspective permeates their entire instructional development activity and provides a foundation for organization of the Center and communication with the campus community, CIDR staff, and faculty and graduate teaching assistants.