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Designing the Course
In this section, we address basic issues and orientations to the introductory course in
interpersonal communication. Particularly important for less experienced instructors, this
opening identifies some of the dangers and difficulties that can arise in teaching material
ssion of alternative approaches to
teaching the course, ways to organize a class and manage logistics, methods of creating a climate
conducive to involvement and active learning, and a set of general resources (e.g., course-wide
assignments, Internet sites, published research).
Opportunities and Challenges
We find that teaching the introductory course in interpersonal communication offers
opportunities and challenges in equal measure. The opportunities arise from the course content
and the satisfaction of seeing students grow personally. The challenges also involve the course
content since students are asked to deal with issues that are sometimes troubling and unsettling.
Opportunities
The opportunities that accompany teaching this course are many and special. Among these are
their competence in specific communication skills, and their respect for social diversity.
Enlarging Understanding
An obvious yet nonetheless important highlight of teaching the introductory course in
interpersonal communication is the chance to introduce students to a fascinating area of study
Skill Development
relationships and communication is the opportunity to improve stud
communication skills. The textbook, MindTap, and this guide provide a wealth of concrete
Respect for Social Diversity
A third and very important opportunity in teaching this course with Interpersonal
Communication–Everyday Encounters
and appreciation of social diversity. Woven throughout the text are discussions of the
relationships between communication and gender, race, class, sexual orientation, and other
aspects of identity. A primary theme of the text is that diversity is integral to human
communication, not something we tack on as an afterthought. The exercises in this guide further
Challenges
Along with the opportunities involved in teaching the introductory course in interpersonal
communication, there are also distinct challenges. Among these are egocentric perspectives, the
difficulty of struggling with personally troublesome issues, and ethnocentrism.
Egocentric Perspectives
n
any class we teach take issue with the finding that parents generally communicate differently
untrue. Similarly, students whose romantic relationships have followed trajectories different
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Difficult Issues
The study of interpersonal communication necessarily involves attention to issues that are
difficult and often personally painful to students. Because Interpersonal
Communication–Everyday Encounters seriously and consistently addresses social diversity and
related inequities and prejudices, students will be confronted with unpleasant facts about
Western society. Some want to believe that America is a classless society and that racism is a
relic of history. Students are uncomfortable when confronted with information that dispels the
myth of a classless, non-racist society. They are even more uncomfortable when teachers
encourage them to reflect on the ways in which race, class, and gender have shaped their
identities and communication styles and the judgments they make about people whose race,
class, and sex differ from their own. The discomfort students (and teachers!) experience in
Instructors must skillfully manage situations that require them to insist that a topic or group not
be banned from class consideration — treat resisting students with respect to be consistent with
the value of honoring diversity and to keep the classroom climate open. The teacher can model
the communication skills the course emphasizes: openness, nonjudgmental interaction, respect
for differences, and willingness to continue the conversation.
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factors. Some will have suffered racial slurs and class exclusion; others will have endured sexual
harassment and gender discrimination; and still others will have lost jobs and perhaps suffered
blows to their self-respect. Almost all of your students will have experienced unrequited love,
betrayals by friends, and other ordinary but nonetheless disturbing interpersonal casualties.
Interpersonal Communication–Everyday Encounters does not dodge these difficult topics, but
addresses them as real, if unfortunate, aspects of modem life for many people. It is impossible to
Ethnocentrism
A common challenge in teaching this course (and many others) is teaching students to be aware
of ethnocentric perspectives and to resist ethnocentrism in their own thought and action.
appropriate universal standard for judgment. Ethnocentrism may be conscious-for instance, a
student may be aware that norms for eye contact vary among cultures, yet believe that the
conventions of his or her own culture are right or best. More often, however, students are not
aware of their ethnocentrism. They assume the communication practices they have learned are
normal and right, and they automatically apply the standards of their culture to everyone without
realizing that the standards themselves are arbitrary and culturally constructed.
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Incorporati
awareness of the range of ways in which people communicate and build relationships. This
ffort is needed to
increase awareness of the tendency to use our own culture as the standard for judging other
cultures.
A particularly important way to heighten awareness of ethnocentrism is to point out ethnocentric
biases that surface in classroom discussions. Even students who genuinely want to respect
diversity often unconsciously employ ethnocentric standards. In our classes, students often
discuss race as if it applies to people of color, but not to Caucasians. When this occurs, we
remind them that Caucasians, too, have race. Similarly, male-generic language and male
standards of behavior periodically emerge in class discussions and we point them out to students.
Instructors should be especially alert to more subtle forms of ethnocentrism so that these can be
highlighted for students. For example, during a class discussion of what dress communicates, our
students centered on the ways people stylize identities with the clothes they wear. It became
obvious during our discussion that students were assuming everyone could buy clothes to project
the personal image they desired. We pointed out that this assumption reflects a middle– and
Creating an Effective Classroom Climate
Effective teaching requires more than competence in the content of a course. Because that
content exists within a context, teachers must create a learning environment that supports the
content and goals of their courses. The climate, or overall mood, of a classroom sets the tone for
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what will happen in a course. Classroom climate affects what is said (and not said), what is
learned (and not learned), and how students feel about themselves and interpersonal
communication.
Most instructors of introductory courses in interpersonal communication desire a classroom
climate that is inviting, psychologically safe, and personally and intellectually stimulating. This
Openness
An open classroom climate is one in which students feel it is safe to be honest and that their
ideas, feelings, and questions are valued. They feel free to take the risk of disclosing moderately
personal information and to talk candidly about issues in their lives.
The instructor sets the tone for openness by how she or he acts in the first meeting of the class
and in all subsequent meetings. Creating a sense of openness begins on the first day of class
when the instructor introduces the course and himself or herself. Instructors who reveal personal
Involvement
A second quality of effective learning environments is involvement. Involvement exists when
students are personally engaged with material and each other and when that engagement
translates into constructive participation in the class. Students who feel personally involved and
engaged in a course will participate actively in classroom discussions and will learn course
material.
Students generally enter the introductory course in interpersonal communication with a high
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As with openness, involvement is developed from the first meeting of a course. The initial
session should set a tone that invites students to become directly and personally engaged with the
material and each other. During the opening discussion with a new class, we make a point of
asking individual students what they think about particular issues that pertain to the course. Prior
to the first meeting, you may want to identify two or three topics about which you will ask
students: Do labels really matter does it make any difference whether we say Negroes, Blacks,
or African Americans? Should laws be changed to recognize lesbian and gay marriages? Are
Americans too individualistic and competitive? Is verbal or nonverbal communication more
important in friendships?
speak up, particularly on the first day of class. Thus, they may feel awkward at first. This is
Involvement means more than having students respond to their instructor. An involved class is
one in which students respon
students to talk with each other, as well as with you. One way to do this is to ask a second
you ha
dialogue with you and each other until you sense that they feel comfortable being actively
involved.
Involvement is also generated when students apply course material to their personal lives.
Respect
Respect is a third vital quality of an effective learning climate for courses in interpersonal
communication. Both openness and involvement prosper in a climate of respect; neither is likely
what they say will be respected.
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We devote time in the first class meeting to discussing the importance of respecting diversity.
During the initial class session, we explain that in this course we will respect diverse ideas,
experiences, values, and communication styles. Also, the printed syllabus states that all
comments deserve and will receive respectful hearings. In discussing this with students, we
assure them there is no pressure for them to agree with everything others (or we) say. Instead,
communicate attitudes.
curiosity and interest when students state points of view that expand or challenge material
also modeled by how teachers respond to students who challenge them and their ideas. If you
respond defensively to a student who disagrees with your point of view, then the class quickly
learns that respect is not granted to ideas that diverge from yours. When the first challenge from
a student emerges (and it always does), respond to it with regard and interest, and you will
embody the attitude of respectfulness that you want students to adopt in the course.
Finally, you will need to monitor communication in your class to make sure that respect for
diversity is sustained. It is inevitable that at some point in the term students will deliberately or
Sense of Community
A final quality of a vibrant classroom climate is a sense of community. This exists when
members of the class see themselves as a group or community that is collectively engaged in
learning, exploring, and enriching their understandings of communication and human activity.
We recommend four methods of enhancing the sense of community in a class.
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Knowing Members of Community
First,
Direct Involvement with Community
A sense of community is also fostered by direct involvement among members of the class.
Students have learned to respond to teachers and to ask teachers questions. However, they often
Student Participation in Course Design
A third way to heighten a sense of community in your classroom is by allowing students to
participate in designing portions of the course. Your experience and judgment will lead you to
make a number of decisions about what to cover and how much time to devote to various topics,
but you can still allow students some involvement in sculpting the course. For example, you
might reserve two or more days at the end of the term for topics of special interest to students.
This is a span of time set aside at the beginning of each class meeting for discussion of
observations, experiences, news items, films, and so forth that pertain to interpersonal
communication. Class Business achieves three important pedagogical goals. First, it prompts
students to notice interpersonal communication issues in their lives and in society. Second, it
allows students and teachers to discuss valuable topics beyond those designated on the formal
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syllabus. Third, it demonstrates, often dramatically, the relevance of course material to the
everyday life of individuals and society.
Julia first invented Class Business in 1989 and introduced it in a course in gender and
communication. Everyone thought it was effective in heightening both involvement with course
material and our sense of community. Since 1989 we have routinely included Class Business in
all of our courses, and invariably students praise it in their final course evaluations.
At the beginning of the second class meeting we ask whether anyone has any Class Business.
Typically, nobody volunteers anything so early in the course. We come prepared with news
clippings and observations, which we present to the class. For example, the UCLA Internet
Report: Surveying the Digital Future, Year Three, released in Spring
Internet in 2002 continued to be a catalyst for creating and maintaining friendships and family
new communication technologies play in communicating interpersonal relationships. Topics
related to interpersonal communication are numerous and never hard to find in the popular press
and in everyday activities. After two to four class meetings in which you initiate discussion of
Class Business items you have brought, students will begin to bring items and observations of
but rather preventing it from taking over the entire class period. To avoid this problem we often
impose a time limit of five or ten minutes for Class Business each day.
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Alternative Approaches to Teaching
Interpersonal Communication–Everyday Encounters is designed to accommodate diverse
teaching goals, styles, and philosophies. Here we discuss four approaches and how the text
supports each one.
Conceptual Approach
The conceptual approach focuses on concepts, theories, principles, and research findings. It is
appropriate for instructors whose goal is for students to learn about interpersonal
communication. The conceptual approach is also appropriate and often expected at research
universities that place a higher priority on conceptual learning than development of concrete
skills.
For courses adopting the conceptual approach, students are expected to study, retain, and recall
specific information and to understand theoretical explanations. Underlying this approach is the
assumption that knowledge translates into action. Thus, it is assumed that by learning about
communication principles and theories, students will become more competent in their
communication practices.
Lectures and discussions are the predominant methods of teaching when a conceptual approach
is employed. Activities and exercises play a subordinate role in learning. Any activities that are
used emphasize conceptual understanding rather than personal application and skill
development.
Interpersonal Communication–Everyday Encounters contains ample conceptual material, and it
covers both classic and current research and theories on interpersonal communication. Using the
textbook as a foundation, an instructor may supplement its coverage with recently published
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Skills Approach
A second approach that many instructors of interpersonal communication favor concentrates
chiefly on behaviors and behavioral change. The skills approach emphasizes practice and
application of effective interpersonal communication behaviors. This pedagogical approach
assumes that understanding theory, research, principles, and concepts does not guarantee
effective personal action. Thus, attention to conceptual material is limited to what is necessary in
developing effective communication behavior.
A skills approach to teaching emphasizes learning and incorporating effective communication
behaviors. For example, to teach the unit on listening (Chapter 6 of the text), an instructor would
highlight important listening skills and should provide opportunities for students to practice
effective listening skills.
Combined Approach
Many instructors combine conceptual and skills emphases to create courses in which students are
expected both to understand theories, research, and concepts and to develop effective
communication skills. Underlying this approach is the assumption that conceptual learning is
essential to, but not the same as, effective practice. In other words, conceptual understanding
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Springboard Approach
A fourth approach uses the textbook as a springboard for a course. The text serves as a
appropriate for students who have limited background knowledge, low internal motivation to
study and learn, or minimal skills in independent learning. It can be effective with students who
grasp material quickly and who are highly motivated to learn. Although we usually adopt the
combined approach in our own teaching, when we have a small class of students who are
academically gifted we often employ a springboard approach.
Instructors who favor the springboard approach tend to implement it in one of two ways. Some
instructors designate the first portion of the course for discussing the textbook. The remainder of
the course is then used to go beyond the textbook. Extended coverage may be the responsibility
of the teacher, students, or both. Teachers sometimes like to use the basic information in the text
A second way to implement the springboard approach is by integrating it into teaching
throughout a term. Following this plan, instructors clarify textbook readings at the outset of each
new unit in a course. The remainder of class time is used to supplement, extend, and elaborate
what was covered in the readings. This method allows students to rely on their textbook
throughout the term, so it is a consistent facet of their learning and a common thread in their
experience of the course.
Interpersonal Communication–Everyday Encounters lends itself well to a springboard approach
to teaching. Like most introductory texts, it emphasizes breadth of coverage over depth. Thus, it
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Recommended Assignments
ams and in-class
and their awareness of interpersonal communication in their everyday lives.
The Interpersonal Communication Journal
This is a major class assignment that encourages students to think about and apply material
covered in the text to their relationships and activities. The Journal includes two sections. In the
first, we specify ten to twenty topics students are to address that apply material in the textbook.
This ensures that students will think about issues we judge particularly important in terms of the
course. The second section of the Journal consists of topics students initiate. This allows students
to focus their own learning by reflecting on issues they consider significant beyond the ones that
were assigned.
Sometimes students benefit from a bit of prompting to complete Journal entries at the time they
read the related material in the textbook. One way to encourage prompt and regular attention to
Journal assignments is to ask two or three students to share their entries with the class. If this is