Godfrey A. Steele

Using a modified course experience questionnaire (CEQ) to evaluate the innovative teaching of medical communication skills.

SETTING At the Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine first-year students take two courses in health communication. In the Centre for Medical Sciences Education students completed a course experience questionnaire. This instrument is potentially useful in evaluating innovative programmes and securing support for their development. CONTEXT The Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine was the first of three campuses to introduce compulsory health communication courses in 1995. Using a modified form of the 25-item course experience questionnaire (CEQ25) (Broomfield & Bligh, 1998) normally employed in overall degree or course evaluation, this study developed a 30-item questionnaire (CEQ30) to test its applicability to the evaluation of medical communication skills teaching MEASURES In 1997 - 1998 medical, dentistry, veterinary medicine and pharmacy students completed the original short form of the CEQ25 including five items specific to medical communication skills teaching. Students used a five-point Likert scale ranging from one, indicating that they strongly disagreed with the statement, to a score of five, reporting that they strongly agreed with the statement. Principal Components Analysis with Varimax rotation analysed the scale structure of the evaluation tool. RESULTS The principal components factor analysis of responses (n = 165) broadly confirmed five of Broomfield and Blighs six factors, but identified a sixth factor in their original instrument (appropriate assessment) that split into two, and a seventh factor, use of available materials and resources. CONCLUSION The modified CEQ30 is a reliable instrument with which to evaluate a course in medical communication skills, and encourage reflection on teaching and course design. Its use is applicable to medical courses during overall curriculum change and innovation in a medical school.

Supervisor–Subordinate Communication Competence and Job and Communication Satisfaction

In contrast to the predominant business and organizational communication research on supervisor influence, this article examined communication competence, communication satisfaction, and job satisfaction differences within and between groups in the supervisor–subordinate relationship. The study also examined the relationship among the three communication and satisfaction phenomena. Two survey questionnaires were completed by 152 subordinates and 20 supervisors/managers at a public utility in the first phase. A third survey questionnaire was completed by 32 supervisors/managers in the second phase. The results indicated no support for hypothesized differences in ratings of communication competence, and job and communication satisfaction within and between subordinate and supervisor groups, but positive and significant relationships among the variables. The significance of the results is discussed in terms of the implications for the dyadic and interactive nature of supervisor–subordinate communication and directions for future research in this field.

New postgraduate student experience and engagement in human communication studies

New postgraduate students’ feedback on their learning offers insights into engagement. Student feedback to students and teachers can contribute to teacher feedback to students. When this happens, students can feel engaged or connected to their learning experiences. Adopting a more inclusive notion of feedback on learning, this paper explores the role of personal efficacy beliefs and personal agency to extend the concept of academic engagement beyond its traditional domains of academic, behavioural and emotional engagement to include civic engagement with learning. Similarly, although the traditional notion of feedback frames it as an activity that is provided by teachers, it is also possible to conceive of students giving teachers feedback on their teaching and learning in further and higher education. A total of 12 postgraduate communication students were encouraged to reflect and give feedback on their re-entry into an academic learning community. In this qualitative design, students responded to a structured online request for email feedback on their experiences as new graduate students, their experience of studying two courses, their experience of shared teaching and learning activities with their instructor and the link between their research projects and civic engagement. Additional data on student assessments of teaching and their course work and examination performances corroborated written student feedback. This study explored the extent to which students’ feedback on their new postgraduate experience stimulates engagement and promotes critical reflection on learning. Students’ feedback and reflections are geared towards developing and deriving maximum value from the experience. Students’ feedback and reflections on their new postgraduate experience demonstrate the potential for developing engaged study and research in further and higher education that benefits students and their teachers.

Conflict Management and Communication in a Wage Negotiation Context

After almost 30 months of on-and-off negotiations, three parties engaged in a dispute for a salary increase for university staff eventually agreed on a pay hike for that staff within a matter of two weeks. This formative paper examines the management of conflict issues emerging from the negotiation of a compensation package for academic, senior administrative and professional staff at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. Data compiled over a two-week period from press coverage of the conflict, and communications between the staff union and its members, the union and the employer, and the union and the government are subjected to textual analysis. Preliminary findings are presented, but are expected to be refined after further analysis. The purpose of the study is to explore the factors leading to the rapid resolution of the conflict and to attempt to develop an explanatory framework for the sudden intensification and rapid resolution of conflict that occurred after a previously protracted period of negotiations.