1. Teaching Organizational Communication: An Empowerment Based Approach.
- Author
-
Luechauer, David L. and Shulman, Gary M.
- Abstract
Students must learn how to become leaders rather than bosses if they are going to survive and contribute to the needs of the organizations that will employ them. A course was outlined to develop classroom management practices that would simultaneously model and teach students about the philosophy and practice of empowerment. Interviews of 160 college juniors about faculty practices that made them feel powerless indicated that most of the issues they raised (straight lecture classes, no participation, seating charts) are considered time-honored instructional procedures by most faculty. The actual practices faculty might employ to empower students are limited only by creativity and contextual appropriateness. The course uses an empowerment-focused syllabus, has students react to the syllabus, lets students generate the class requirements and shape evaluation criteria, has students keep a daily log that operationalizes participation criteria, and requires a semester-long comprehensive final exam project which students work on throughout the semester. Implementing these practices has created challenging and stimulating classes. Students indicated their increased feelings of ownership, self-efficacy, and motivation. Shifting paradigms from traditional pedagogical techniques to empowerment in the classroom is imperative for preparing students to better adapt to rapid economic, political, and social changes in the 1990s and beyond. (RS)
- Published
- 1993