My Teaching
At the University of Maryland, I am Director of COMM 107 - Oral Communication: Principles and Practice. This course is a multi-section hybrid basic course on the communication process, intrapersonal communication (including listening), interpersonal communication (including conversation, interviewing, and group interactions), and public communication (including informative briefing and persuasive speaking). The course meets the communication needs of a wide range of students enrolled from throughout the university each semester. The sections are taught by graduate teaching assistants and instructors from the Department of Communication.
In conjunction with my responsibilities as course director, I teach a seminar on Teaching Speech Communication, COMM 686, in the fall semesters for all of the new teaching assistants in our department. The course deals with the learning process in the communication classroom from the standpoint of the students, the curriculum, teaching methodologies, and assessment.
Additionally, I teach a variety of undergraduate courses which enroll primarily Communication majors but which are open to upper-level students from other disciplines. These courses include:
- COMM 422, Communication Management, a course designed to prepare students to manage the internal and external communication functions of organizations. The focus in this course is on the development and presentation of a case study profiling the communication management of an actual organization.
- COMM 470, Listening, a course designed to introduce students to the complex process of listening, the various levels of listening behavior, and the applications of these principles to the student's own listening repertoire. In addition to a variety of listening activities, the students research a topic in listening theory and share that project with the class.
- COMM 482, Intercultural Communication, a course designed to create awareness of the impact of the increasing internationalization and diversification of our society on intrapersonal, interpersonal, and public communication. As a major project, each student explores a culture and draws implications for communication in that culture.
Teaching Philosophy
Andrew D. Wolvin
Department of Communication
University of Maryland
As a teacher, I am strongly committed to delivering communication education to all students. In today's oral society, speaking and listening skills are paramount. Because information happens (and changes) so rapidly, people must rely more on the oral exchange of information and less on extensive written documentation. In the intelligence organizations where I work as a speech coach, for instance, oral briefings have become a major channel for processing information. Thus, I feel that an important part of my mission as a communication teacher is advocacy of communication courses for all students at all levels of education. Young children, teenagers, young adults, adults, and seniors have different communication needs that require attention at different points across the life-span.
The delivery of communication education impresses me as a constantly changing "work in progress." Because we are so overwhelmed with messages today, people have less time to encode and decode lengthy discourse. Our communication curriculum must account for time as a critical communication variable and adapt to the demands of our "sound bite society." I work to remain current in my understanding of the dynamics of communication - so rapidly changed today with the rapid advances in communication technology.
Just as our curriculum must deal with the vast changes of our information (and technological) society, so too must our instructional strategies adapt to the learners who are so greatly affected by communication in the 21st century. Learners bring a variety of learning styles - auditory, visual, and/or kinesthetic - to our classrooms, and it is essential that we communication educators adapt to the many different learning needs that students have. I take seriously the need to reach my students with a variety of teaching strategies: lecture, video clips, discussion, classroom activities, Web-based projects, and oral and written projects.
As a communication teacher for almost 40 years, I have been fortunate to teach students at all levels in the life-span. Presently, I enjoy teaching the large number of more traditional undergraduate communication majors enrolled in our program at College Park. I also have the wonderful opportunity to teach communication courses in our University College continuing education program of returning adult students. I do a course on communication skills for lawyers at Georgetown University Law School, and I conduct seminars on briefing skills in our federal intelligence agencies.
As the co-author of several communication texts, I reach many students beyond my own classrooms, and I continue to be reinforced by feedback from students and professors throughout the world who use my books.
I feel it is important to engage, enlighten, and enable my students to achieve their greatest potential as communicators. Since listening behavior is the focus of my research agenda, I center much of what I do in the classroom on listening. This focus engages students for its uniqueness and its significance, and it establishes an important communication expectation of their engagement with me in the learning process.
Likewise, I take seriously my responsibility to enlighten my students about the foundations of communication. It is crucial that students understand the theoretical principles underlying effective communication so that they are truly educated about the process and their participation in that process.
And I work to enable my students to achieve their communication goals through a learning process that establishes the goals, delivers the content, and assesses the results. My process builds on communication knowledge, attitudes, and skills. I find this triumvirate to be critical in enabling students to be educated communicators.
As a communication teacher, I believe that I am successful in engaging, enlightening, and enabling my students. I feel fortunate to be a part of this dynamic field and to make a significant difference in the lives of so many.
My teaching has been recognized. I have received Panhellenic Association Teaching Award and University College Outstanding Teaching nominations. I am a Lilly Teaching Fellow and a Fellow in the Academy for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. I have been designated a Teaching and Learning Scholar by the National Communication Association and a Distinguished Teaching Fellow by the Eastern Communication Association. I was featured as a "Teacher on Teaching" at the National Communication Association Convention in 1999.
For my course syllabi, click here.
For further information about other courses in the University of Maryland Department of Communication curriculum, click here.
For further information about the University of Maryland Department of Communication, click here.
For information about the University of Maryland, click here.