Teachers play a key role in communicating with parents to support student learning. One of the more challenging aspects of this role for teachers is having a difficult conversation with a parent about their child. Difficult conversations, when needed, are best accomplished face-to-face incorporating effective communication skills to promote a…

An essential skill for school leaders and coaches is learning how to share ideas in a way that does not shut down teachers' voices, ideas, and thinking. The authors refer to this type of conversation as a partnering conversation. This article identifies two categories of conversations, telling and partnering, along with two kinds of partnering…

While improving ability to communicate effectively is a given for developing student leadership potential, there are very few systematic frameworks to guide communication skill improvement. Using a model of emotional and social skills derived from research in interpersonal and emotional/nonverbal communication, tools and strategies for both…

Children with typical hearing and vision learn to communicate by watching and listening to others. But children who are deafblind have limited access to learning this way. They need knowledgeable educators who understand how deafblindness impacts learning--who know how to assess a child's communication and plan for and engage in meaningful…

This activity introduces undergraduate students to the idea of metacommunication by means of a performance praxis assignment. Students will engage in a performance that enhances their communication skills and better understand how the frames of mimesis and poiesis are utilized to understand communication form and context. Courses: A single-class…

This tutorial offers speech-language pathologists (SLPs) an opportunity to consider the theoretical constructs of language acquisition theory and the multifactorial determinants that can impinge on the language acquisition process for children with complex communication needs. The system of constraints observed through the lens of optimality…

This conceptual paper deals with ways in which gesture or embodied utterances create deictic expressions (i.e., deixis) that are relevant to second language teaching and learning. While many gesture types have been found to be material carriers of meaning (McNeill, 1992; Vygotsky, 1986), deictics have the ability and function to create new…

Children with complex communication needs often have multiple disabilities including visual impairments that impact their ability to interact with aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems. Just as the field benefited from a consideration of visual cognitive neuroscience in construction of visual displays, an exploration of…

In this discussion, we consider how the use of scenario-based assessment (SBA) can provide students with a way of developing the digital communication skills that business communication research has found they will need for the workplace, alongside other aspects of professional competence. This is because SBA can be employed to engage learners in…

This article discusses interdisciplinary approaches to help students overcome communication barriers by integrating performing arts in Business Communication courses. Companies emphasize a workforce with solid soft skills to succeed. International Business employs English; thus, practical communication skills in English provide access to jobs in…

We offer as praxis--at the intersection between theory and practice--an essay examining what we are calling the "micro-geography" of the communication center. Specifically, we challenge communication center practitioners to think about the ways in which everyday practices and "bottom-up" efforts in our centers can work to…

Multilingual students learning English face changes in developing intercultural communicative competence outside the classroom. This Classroom Exploration, informed by frameworks of intercultural communicative competence, willingness to communicate, and cultural adaptation, explores the use of reflection comics in a service-learning course for…

In this paper I suggest a pragmatic model for the notion of 'information' used in molecular biology in the description of protein synthesis. Discarding any ontological commitments of the term 'information', I propose a view of information based on an analogy with communication. This view could at least supplement the existing information-metaphor…

Facilitated communication (FC) has been a heavily debated and documented topic across multiple disciplines, including sociology, education, psychology, pediatrics, speech-language pathology, and disability studies. Although many professionals from various disciplines and advocates have offered opinions, suggestions, and research on the topic,…

Creative confidence is a necessary and valuable skill to prepare students for marketing careers. Marketers need to be trained to offer creative solutions to enhance marketing offerings. To help address this need, the aim of this paper is to provide logistical instructions for a class module that enhances students' creative confidence through…