Scott D. Johnson

A Cross-Cultural Study of Immediacy, Credibility, and Learning in the U.S. and Kenya

Extensive research has documented the positive relationships between teacher immediacy and student perceptions of learning and teacher credibility. However, the vast majority of this research has been limited to samples of students in the U.S. The present study involves a cross-cultural study of immediacy, with samples of students drawn from a university in the U.S. and a university in Kenya. Students completed measures of verbal and nonverbal immediacy, teacher credibility, and cognitive learning. Positive relationships were identified between verbal immediacy, nonverbal immediacy, credibility, and cognitive learning for both samples, further supporting research done in the U.S. and elsewhere suggesting that higher immediacy teachers are perceived as being more effective and credible.

Examining the relationship between listening effectiveness and leadership emergence : Perceptions, behaviors, and recall

This study examined the relationship between listening effectiveness and leadership emergence in the task-oriented small group. Subjects were 51 undergraduate students in lO classroom groups assigned as zero-history, leaderless work groups. The groups met together for 12 weeks prior to participating in the study. Groups were videotaped conducting a decisionmaking discussion, and members later completed a recall instrument, a listeningperceptions instrument, and a leadership-perceptions instrument. Three sets of coders viewed the taped discussions and coded listening effectiveness, leadership behavior, and recall. Results show strong, positive relationships among all variables except recall, indicating that emergent leaders typically display more effective listening skills than the other members.

Leadership and Listening A Study of Member Perceptions

This study examined the perceptions of members of 23 task-oriented classroom small groups regarding the variables of leadership and listening. Following the completion of a long-term class assignment, groups were divided in half Half of each group completed a leadership assessment instrument while the other half completed a listening assessment instrument. Spearman correlations were computed on the data gathered. Results indicate a significant positive correlation between member rankings of leadership behavior and member rankings of listening effectiveness.

Secondary teachers’ and undergraduate education faculty members’ perceptions of teaching‐effectiveness criteria: A national survey

This essay presents findings from a national survey of secondary‐school teachers and undergraduate education faculty members regarding their perceptions of criteria related to gaining employment as a secondary‐school teacher, effective teaching, and preparatory undergraduate coursework. A questionnaire was sent to a sample of 1076 secondary‐school teachers and 538 undergraduate education faculty members asking them to rate criteria and courses. Data collected from 350 secondary‐school teachers and 201 undergraduate education faculty members showed that communication‐related skills (e.g., Interpersonal Communication Skills, Oral Communication Skills), attributes (e.g., Enthusiasm, Poise) and courses (e.g., Interpersonal Communication, Public Speaking) were rated among the most important criteria by both groups of respondents in all three areas (employment in a teaching position, in‐class effectiveness, and preparatory coursework). The role of teacher preparation in the current National Communication Associ...

Dialogic, dialectic, and rhetoric: Exploring human dialogue across the discipline

In the communication discipline, human dialogue is studied by both social scientists and humanists. Social scientists situate dialogue in dialectic; humanists situate dialogue in rhetoric. Generally, their work proceeds without acknowledgment of the other, perpetuating what we identify as central concerns for the discipline: (a) The isolation of dialectic and rhetoric as distinct subjects of analysis; (b) the theoretical antagonism of dialectic and rhetoric; (c) the political antagonism of the humanistic and social scientific sides of the discipline; and (d) the stabilization of both the theory of human dialogue and the methods used to study it. This essay problematizes the study of human dialogue in the communication discipline and suggests that future directions in dialogic theory and research show ways of engaging dialectic and rhetoric in an authentic rather than antagonistic dialogue.