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Showing posts from September, 2013

Nonverbal Communication

Kendall-Hunt has put up a website for my  The Nonverbal Communication Book.  ( www.KendallHunt.com/devito ).   The website has links to the Preface, the TOC, and a sample chapter--(click "Samples"). I chose the chapter on temporal communication--Time Messages. This sample chapter is open access and so students as well as instructors can use it. It's a really very different nonverbal communication textbook and that's why I wanted the chapter made available online. If anyone does use it in class or just looks at the chapter--as student or instructor, I'd sure appreciate hearing any reactions, negative as well as positive.

The Poor Professor

    Here is a portrait of the poor professor�and by implication, the good professor--as seen by students, at least as noted on some 100+ professors as rated by students on RateMyProfessor. My method was simple: I examined the comments on some 100+ professors at random. I simply plugged in a school�some colleges and some universities, some public institutions and some private or religious--and selected names, some male and some female�at random. Nothing terribly scientific but reasonably fair, it seems. I then grouped the comments into general categories, though, as you�ll see, there is considerable over-lapping. The portrait of the professor who is not well liked that emerges is amazingly clear. Students regularly note similar traits and behaviors that they consider �poor teaching.� Here are ten characteristics that seem to be identified over and over again. These also suggest�to my mind at least--that students� expectations for professors are realistic, reasonable, and achie...