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Recent documents published by the Scottish Government appear to signal an increase in the importance of young people in Scotland having a voice in their education (throughout the study I refer to children of primary school age as pupils; those of secondary school age as students and will use the term young people when referring to both age groups). To some extent, this is nothing new as pupil voice has been part of the educational landscape since the 1980s. However, this begs the question that if pupil voice has been with us for nearly 40 years why is it needing to be reemphasised? What is not working? These questions come at a time when there is increasing evidence that young people want more say over their learning. Therefore, the purpose of this critical ethnographic study is to explore whether dialogue through digital media alters participants' perceptions of power and what are the consequences for young people in terms of equity in their learning and empowerment in the classroom. Using a critical ethnographic approach (through observation of pupils developing their research, observing the learning they recorded and listening to 'respectful conversations) and based on focus groups, interviews undertaken by participants during 'respectful conversations' and research undertaken by pupils, the study focused on whether participants perceived there to be a change in the relationships between teachers and young people, particularly in terms of the power relationships between them. Field notes were used to record observations of young people and staff in classrooms. Results indicated that young people did not perceive themselves as having increased power within the teacher-pupil relationship. However, there was evidence that some pupils transformed the way they thought about learning and teaching and became more confident to ask questions and take more responsibility for their own learning. A group of pupils used this confidence to undertake their own research about learning in their school and use their findings to influence the school improvement plan. They also shared their findings at the 2016 Scottish Education Research Association (SERA) Annual Conference. There was evidence for increased participation in learning when measured against theoretical models of participation. The results of the study have implications for the way teachers engage with young people and use pupil voice to support learning and school improvement. There are also implications for further discussions on the use of the term pupil voice. This study suggests that the terms 'micro-dialogue' and 'macro-dialogue' may be helpful terms to consider using when discussing how to gather young people's views on learning.

Almost certainly, students communicate with each other about course-related material, particularly about exam performance. However, what is less well understood is how often student-to-student communication occurs, when it occurs, and the effects these interactions may have. There were three goals of this study: to (a) collect descriptive data concerning student to student communication behaviors, (b) study the effects of student benchmarking communication behaviors on student motivation and state self-esteem, and (c) study if and how grade discussion results in deception. College students (N = 539) completed questionnaires about student-to-student communication behaviors, followed by an experiment that positioned students in a hypothetical first-person narrative scenario where they received a grade of A, C, or F on an exam in a class in their major; after class, the student engaged in a discussion about grade performance with three other peers from the class who were either close friends or schoolmates and who all reported scoring either A's, C's, or F's on the exam. Student motivation to prepare for a future exam and state self-esteem were measured to determine the effects of this grade communication. Finally, students were asked what grade they would report when prompted by their peers, which indicated whether or not students would lie. Results indicated students most frequently communicate with acquaintances and close friends about course material during and immediately prior to class. This communication about course-related material occurs more often with those who the student feels close to, such as a friend, and less often with those who the student feels distant from, such as a stranger. Students also reported the purpose of communicating with others about course-related topics was to share information with others about class, either as an information seeker or information sharer. Ninety five percent of students confirmed grade discussion was a topic of student-student communication. Two factorial ANOVAs indicated main effects for student grade on motivation and state self-esteem. However, this experiment was unable to support the notion that peer discussion of grades affects student motivation or state self-esteem. Another factorial ANOVA indicated interaction effects and main effects of student grade on deception. This study partially confirmed that grade and grade discussion has an effect on deception. Major contributions of this research are (a) verification through systematic research that students communicate with other students concerning course-related topics, including grades, (b) the grade a student receives affects his/her motivation and state self-esteem, and (c) the grade and peer communication about grades affects the likelihood a student attempts to deceive others about his/her grades. Thus, results provide a picture of student-student benchmarking communication as common, complex, and sometimes deceitful. Student-student grade discussions are complicated social situations that can impact individual students both personally and academically and affect relationships between and among students.

In today's society where universities are viable targets for crises, it is imperative that school administrators communicate effectively with students and that those students, in turn, follow appropriate crisis and emergency risk procedures (National Summit, 2004). However, as is seemingly evident in cases such as Virginia Tech, the communication models currently employed by university officials are less than effective. The question then becomes, why? The current research was driven by two goals. The first, from a general communication perspective, was to explore the role of the receiver's perceptions of the sender on the acceptance or rejection of the crisis and emergency risk communication (CERC) message. The second, from an academic organizational context, was to test the effectiveness of Witte's (1992) extended parallel process model (EPPM) in predicting student response (acceptance or rejection) to CERC messages sent by university officials. By incorporating a quasi-experimental design, participants were asked to indicate their attachment to the university and respond to a series of hypothetical CERC email messages sent from university officials. The results indicated that although the EPPM is an appropriate tool for creating effective health risk messages aimed at changing behavior over time, it is not appropriate for creating CERC messages in the midst of a crisis. However, if a student has high organizational attachment (i.e., "school spirit") before a crisis occurs, then he or she will be more likely to follow safety instructions provided by university officials when the crisis does occur. Thus, the lesson for university officials is to put forth effort to increase students' organizational attachment now so that when faced with a crisis, the university can rely on its reputation and credibility to effectively keep its students safe.

This qualitative study investigated the use of instructor affinity-seeking through two distinct channels- face-to-face and e-mail- to understand the effects of and ways to improve out-of-class communication. This research explores the frequency and nature of interactions, sheds light on the preferred channels of communication, and reveals the effectiveness of instructor initiated affinity-seeking. Undergraduate students enrolled at a mid-sized private university were asked to participate in a series of focus groups. Focus group results indicated that students have minimal contact with faculty outside the class and mostly formal topics are discussed. Students reported that instructors were successful at gaining affinity by using appropriate nonverbal cues during face-to-face communication. In general, students reported that computer-mediated affinity-seeking was misunderstood and inappropriately presented. Results also illustrated which affinity-seeking strategies encouraged and hindered frequency of out-of-class communication.

This study examines focused interaction in two conference systems to determine if a conference system, as media, influences the structure of discourse interaction. The investigative perspective applied has foundations in Erving Goffman’s explanation of focused interaction, which reasons that in sustained conversation, or talk, a frame emerges for how messages should be interpreted and which messages are considered relevant (see discussion by Kendon in Duranti & Goodwin,1991). Descriptions of focused interaction expand to include spatial and orientational relations as regulators for what is attended to or treated as irrelevant. When applied to electronic discourse, the spatial arrangement of messages may influence which messages are attended to and which messages should be treated as irrelevant. To investigate possible influence of conference system structure on discourse interaction, references to previous messages were considered indicators of attentional focus; and thereby reveal interaction patterns. During a four-week period messages generated by students in two sections of freshman honors English Literature taught by the same faculty member were collected. Both course sections were taught at Xavier University of Louisiana. The messages were analyzed by volunteer coders using a checklist code format for message content. Each course section was assigned one of two treatment conditions. The treatment conditions were the conference systems used as either structured (WebBoard Conference©) or unstructured (electronic mail distribution list). All student tasks were similar assignments. At the end of message collection, vi students completed a questionnaire for demographic information and self-report of technical skills. Self-report data was used to establish that the students in the two courses were from the same population. This study found evidence that a conference system environment may influence the structure of discourse interaction. A statistical difference was found for the use of reference behaviors and the type of message posted between structured and unstructured conference systems. Research of this type has implications for instructional technology and appropriate use of conference systems.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of determining if recent studies showing no significant comprehension loss at compressed rates were valid for a learning situation.

Six hundred sixty-six students were queried at the University of North Texas. The appropriate use of nonverbal behaviors of international and U.S. American TAs was surveyed. An eleven item questionnaire (Teacher Nonverbal Measure) was utilized. These questions were tested by an ANOVA. Data indicated that international TAs are less likely to use appropriate nonverbal behaviors than U.S. American TAs. Thus, it is possible to assume that international TAs are more likely to be perceived as using inappropriate nonverbal behaviors than U.S. American TAs. Also, communication competence was investigated. The Communication Skill Rating Scale was utilized and tested by ANOVA. Results indicate that international TAs are viewed as significantly less competent than U.S. American TAs.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of verbal communication and vocal performance during university-level applied studio voice lessons. Specific emphasis lay on the relationship between verbal communication, vocal performance, and instructional segments as defined by technical and song literature vocal repertoire.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the leadership style of high school principals and their faculties' level of communication satisfaction. The study was also concerned with the relationship of the respondents' biographical data with leadership style and communication satisfaction. Subjects were selected from a population that consisted of thirty—two high schools in the North Central Texas Area. Each school that participated in the study had its faculty respond to the Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire and a teacher biographical data survey. Each school's principal responded to the Least Preferred Co—Worker Scale, principals' Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire, and a biographical data survey. The results were then analyzed using simple and multiple regression.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of bureaucratic structure to communication satisfaction of teachers in a suburban school district in north Texas. This study compared seven components of communication satisfaction of teachers in Authoritarian schools with those of teachers in Professional schools.

In the catalog issue of the Bulletin of Florida State University, to be published sometime during 1950, will appear a challenging innovation: the General Education course in mathematics, titled mathematics 105, will be listed under the general area of Communication through Language. This, so far as the writer is able to ascertain, will be the first time a course in mathematics has been so listed in any university catalog. It will be the purpose of this paper to examine some aspects of the historical development of mathematics to justify such a classification and to explore some of the implications of such an approach for the teaching of mathematics.