Teaching
I genuinely enjoy and greatly benefit from teaching. In fact, if you've explored my research page, you already know that I have a strong research focus on improving instructional communication in applied contexts. I've been developing a causal process model that attempts to identify the most salient teacher and student behaviors to predict knowledge application and acquistion.
In 2023 I was honored with one of only six University of Kentucky Alumni Association Great Teacher Awards. Thanks to Karen Perry (pictured with me below on the right--my left) who took a great deal of time, effort, and care to nominate me!
The UK Alumni Association Great Teacher Award is special because nominations come directly from students -- and because it has been supported by the UK Alumni Association for over 62 years! I was honored to win the award for the first time in 2000 as an untenured professor! Don't I look young in the picture?
In the spring of 2017, students in my (COM 454) communication and technology honors course surprised me with a cake for my 30th wedding anniversary! Thanks to all of you for making it a great day and a great semester!
Pictured from left to right: Alex Padilla, Shawn McLuckie, Fotis Tompoulidis, Jen Branscum, Emily Wakeley, Caran Kennedy, Caitlyn Barnes, Alicia Perkins, me, Reid White, Bri Poe, Hannah Schuler, Ansley Siebold, and Madalyn Klika (Not pictured: Hannah Clendenin, Katherine Huffman, or Brandon Lee).
In the fall of 2019 I taught COM 315 (Understanding Workplace Communication in a Diverse U.S. Society to 150 undergraduate students!
Please use the blue buttons below to learn more about my teaching.
There are several communication behaviors that eventually influence my success as a teacher--because students will view me as more or less competent based on my mastery of these behaviors. Some behaviors will influence student attitudes and their affect toward learning (e.g., immediacy, caring, confirmation, and shared control) while other behaviors are fundamentally related to student knowledge acquistion and application. For example, how I use different types of knowledge to engage students can also make a tremendous difference. Taken together, my knowledge of content, pedagogy, curriculum, pedagogical content, learners and their characteristics, educational contexts, and knowledge of educational ends, purposes, and values, have all been cultivated as I attempt to positively impact student learning (For more information about knowledge growth in teaching see Shulman (1987) and Friedrich (2002)).
is the unique model and innovative teaching techniques I have shared with my students and colleagues throughout the academy. I genuinely enjoy and greatly benefit from teaching. For me, helping students to understand the theory and application of communication in multiple contexts always leads to an improved clarity and sense of renewal in my own personal development as an educator, researcher, and student of communication science. I value the importance of communication in the teaching and learning process. I understand that the difference between knowing and teaching is communication Download Teaching Philosophy as PDF
+ Teaching and Course Evaluations
+ Teaching Awards and Recognition
Teaching Portfolio
You can download my teaching portfolio here.
COM 315: Understanding Worklpace Communication in a Diverse U.S. Society Download Syllabus
COM 351: Introduction to Communication Theory Download Syllabus
COM 365: Introduction to Communication Research Methods Download Syllabus
COM 425: Communication, Negotiation, and Conflict Management in Organizations Download Syllabus
In 2023 I was honored as one of six faculty who was awarded the University of Kentucky Alumni Great Teacher Award. This was the second time I was honored with the award. The first time was in 2000. Between January 2021 and December 2022, I taught nine courses (three graduate courses and two undergraduate courses three times) with a 4.743 average TCE mean score for the courses and a 4.838 average mean score for teaching (on a 5-point scale). You can access all of my Teaching and Course Evaluations from Fall 2010 - Fall 2022 here
Academic Teaching Logs
COM 325 Business and Industrial Communication
Business and Industrial Communication reviews the principles of communication in organizations. The most common organizational communication variables are reviewed (e.g., communication distortion, conflict, power, managerial leadership style, roles, interviewing, information overload and underload). Emphasis is on application of the principles reviewed to the organizational setting. Simulations, exercises, case studies, and visits to organizations are used to accomplish this goal. The course website that was designed for the course is being promoted by Roxbury Press.
COM 325 is a significant upper-level course which is designed to introduce students to the basic concepts in the study of communication in organizations. The first segment of the course considers theoretical approaches to the practice and study of communication within organizational settings, including classical theories, human relations theories, human resources theories, systems theories, cultural theories, and critical theories. The second segment of this course focuses on both organizational and relational challenges confronting organizations and emphasizes application of these principles in organizational settings.
COM 454 HONORS SEMINAR: Communication and Technology
Communication and Technology is designed as a senior level honors course to stress the themes of human communication, empowerment, and technology. The course emphasizes a theoretical and pragmatic understanding of the impact of technology on communication in organizational contexts. The course introduces students to a variety of forms of computer-mediated communication (CMC), as well as issues pertaining to the effects of these technologies. This course involves both the study and use of such systems; there was a significant "hands-on" component as students learned various network-based communication systems. Uses and impacts on organizational communication, structure, and interpersonal effects were considered in light of several technological variations.