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Background: Spoken discourse impairments post-traumatic brain injury (TBI) are well-documented and heterogeneous in nature. These impairments have chronic implications for adults in terms of employment, socializing and community involvement. Intervention delivered by a speech-language pathologist (SLP) is recommended for adults with discourse impairments post-TBI, with an emphasis on context-sensitive treatment. The developing evidence base indicates a wide array of treatment components for SLPs to evaluate and implement within their clinical practice. However, there is limited insight into how SLPs are currently treating discourse impairments and the rationales informing clinical practice. Aims: To explore the under-researched area of clinical practice for spoken discourse interventions with adults post-TBI, including treatment components and clinician rationales, and to contribute towards a shared knowledge base. Methods & Procedures: Participants were recruited via purposeful sampling strategies. Six SLPs participated from Australia, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). Semi-structured interviews were conducted via Zoom. Interviews were manually transcribed, coded and analysed via a qualitative content analysis approach. Outcomes & Results: Participants described discourse treatment practices across various settings and TBI recovery stages. Results indicated that SLPs used numerous treatment activities, resources and outcome measures. Intervention approaches primarily targeted social communication skills, strategy development/utilization and insight-building. Clinical practice conformed to available guidelines where possible, reflected best practice and incorporated components of the research literature. Participants reported using individualized treatment activities aimed at addressing client-specific factors and rationales prioritized tailored, context-sensitive and goal-directed treatment. Conclusions & Implications: This study provided insight into a previously under-researched area. It highlighted a wide range of treatment activities and factors informing current SLPs' treatment of spoken discourse impairment post-TBI. Overall, clinical practice and rationales discussed in this study were aligned with best practice and emphasized a contextualized, individualized approach to discourse treatment across service settings and stages of recovery. Participants identified areas requiring further support, including access to training, resources and research, and the challenge of finding suitable outcome measures. Further investigation into discourse management post-TBI, from initial assessment to outcome measurement, may help inform clinical decision-making and the transfer of research to practice.

Distance education is expanding in all continents, and the use of video has dominated internet. Synchronous Video Communication (SVC) has not been an option thoroughly investigated and practitioners, who use and design synchronous learning scenarios, are in urgent need of guidance. Distant learners face many barriers, and as a result, they drop out more frequently than on-campus students. Educators seem to be equally affected by the "transactional distance" and the new digital literacies needed for facilitating online learning. This study explores the educators' perspective on how SVC could offer alternative educational forms and possibilities for distance learning. Findings had indicated that the use of visual communication and human to human contact (prosopogonosia: seeing faces) could have a strong impact on learning and teaching, therefore, a theory called Tele-proximity was formulated. Tele-proximity is defined as online embodiment that explains how instructors and students are connected in synchronous networked environment via tele-operations. SVC creates a sense of place or a stage where online identities perform and highlights recent research on audio-visual signals in communication and team work (Pentland, 2012, 2008). The theory can be seen as an extension of the Community of Inquiry Model (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000) and a theoretical framework according to which learning objectives could be designed. Transactional distance could be minimized and may be implemented to facilitate more synchronous, visual, and humane options in distance education.

Employability development is a strategic priority for universities across advanced western economies. Despite this, there is no systematic study of employability development approaches internationally. In this study, we considered how universities portray employability on the public pages of their websites. We undertook website content analysis of 107 research-intensive universities in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Following Farenga and Quinlan, we classified these strategies as "Portfolio," "Hands-off," "Award" and "Non-embedded." Portfolio or Award strategies were the most common across all four locations; Hands-off and Non-embedded strategies were more common to US universities; and Award was more common in the United Kingdom. Universities focused on either "possessional" or "positional" approaches to employability. We advocate for a pedagogical shift towards processual approaches in which responsibility for employability development is shared.

The past two decades have witnessed increasing global acceptance of the important role that capable leadership plays in education reform and school improvement. Consequently, policymakers internationally have actively sought means of strengthening capacity for school-level leadership, with a particular focus on the design of more effective programmes of administrator preparation and development. In this article we examine trends in the design of graduate education programmes offered in the related domains of business management and publication administration. We analyse data extracted from on-line descriptions of three types of master's degree programmes: master of business administration (MBA); master of public administration (MPA); and MBA programmes with a concentration in education (MBA-Ed). The study identifies patterns in the programme structure, curriculum content and learning methods employed in these graduate management programmes. The analysis yields features that could add potential value to university-based master of education degree programmes aimed at principal preparation. (Contains 2 tables and 4 notes.)

Using a qualitative approach drawing on the experiences of four HE lecturers, this study provides an exploration of and insights into a peer review of teaching (PRT) scheme, which focused on teacher immediacy and communication skills. Within the United Kingdom, limited research has been undertaken in relation to teacher immediacy even though international research, particularly in the United States, suggests it enhances lecturer-student interaction. The study identified three key factors that can enhance teaching through the development of immediacy skills. These were: voice and verbal qualities; body language; and location in the teaching space and environmental factors. This article suggests that, based on the evidence from the four lecturers, any PRT scheme that wishes to focus upon enhancing teacher effectiveness should consider addressing these themes in order to facilitate enhanced lecturer-student interaction. (Contains 1 table.)

A series of linked relationships is advanced which together suggest changes should be made to training programs for airside drivers at major airports in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. Overall, the links suggest a relationship between the number of airside incidents such as collisions at airports, the ethnic diversity evident among airside drivers, and the training programs for those drivers. The article advances literature from religious, sporting and ethnic communications research which strongly suggests that addressing an individual or group's ethnic characteristics, especially kinship relationships, increases the effectiveness of business-oriented communications such as education and marketing. But data from interviews among developers and managers of airside driver training programs suggests that no attempt has been made previously to address airside drivers' ethnic background. Reasons presented for this include a widespread lack of recognition of ethnic diversity as an issue in airside driver training, and a consequent lack of government regulation to incorporate such recognition in training programs. Other reasons include cost factors in training development, and the fragmentation of the airside business space between hundreds, if not thousands, of independent contractors. This article suggests that the inclusion of ethnically-oriented strategies in airside driver training programs will act to improve training outcomes and result in fewer airside incidents over time. Benefits available to the transport industry include reductions in liability costs, improvements in passenger and asset safety, and reduction in network blockages.

Recent research in the United States has found candidates for elected office are able to use a rhetorical form of closed-circuit communication with evangelical Protestants — “God Talk” — that communicates valuable political information without alerting other constituencies. Close observation of the 2010 parliamentary elections in the United Kingdom (U.K.) uncovered what appeared to be a form of God Talk in use by David Cameron and the Conservative Party, especially the use of “broken” to describe the state of Britain. Thus, we assess whether God Talk is an efficacious communication strategy in the U.K. using an experiment that selectively exposes participants to God Talk statements. The mixed results suggest that some forms of God Talk are better than others in conveying to U.K. evangelicals that a candidate is conservative and religious without triggering the same associations by non-evangelical voters. We close with a discussion of the normative impact of such communication strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]