Melissa A. Broeckelman-Post

Modeling everyday talk: Differences across communication media and sex composition of friendship dyads

This manuscript advances a mesolevel approach to everyday talk. Given frequent use of mediated communication within interpersonal relationships, we use a technique akin to multitrait/multimethod decomposition to separate content- and medium-specific variance sources. The results find that cross-sex friends enact everyday talk behaviors less frequently than do same-sex friends when communicating face-to-face and via telephone, but these differences do not emerge when online. After controlling for these sex differences, online communication attitudes predict everyday talk across specific media. Beyond offering methodological tools, these results may suggest cross-sex dyads communicate online to buffer against intimacy and thus preserve friendship as platonic.

Teacher Misbehavior and Its Effects on Student Interest and Engagement.

This study sought to investigate whether there was any relationship between teacher misbehaviors and student interest and engagement. Consistent with Emotional Response Theory and models for how teacher behavior impacts student interest and engagement, teacher misbehaviors were strongly correlated with student interest and weakly correlated with student engagement. Teacher incompetence predicted the most variance in student interest, followed by indolence and offensiveness. There was a difference in teacher misbehaviors between the two universities where this study was conducted, but not in student interest or engagement.

Are We Violating Student Expectations? Availability, Workload, Class Time Use, and Technology Policies in Undergraduate Courses

The goal of this study was to better understand what students expect from their college instructors in four areas: availability for out-of-class communication (OCC), student workload, in-class time use, and technology policies. Data from 606 participants were collected using an online survey design. Results showed that students’ expectations for OCC are being met, but that expectations for workload are being violated. Results also suggest that students prefer engaging in instructor-led activities during class time and want to be able to use their technological devices for educational purposes during class, but not for social purposes.

Public speaking versus hybrid introductory communication courses: exploring four outcomes

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to compare student growth in public speaking and hybrid introductory communication skills courses on four outcomes: public speaking anxiety, self-perceived communication competence, intercultural effectiveness, and connected classroom climate. This study also sought to find out whether there were differences in the achievement of outcomes and growth in each outcome by sex and ethnicity. Data from 908 participants utilized a within-subjects and between-subjects repeat measures design. Results showed that public speaking and hybrid communication courses reduced public speaking anxiety and increased self-perceived communication competence and connected classroom climate a similar amount, but did not significantly increase intercultural effectiveness for students overall. Small effects were found for sex on all outcomes and for ethnicity on two outcomes.