Classroom communication and diversity enhancing instructional practice

Synopsis

This textbook provides a useful framework for helping new and experienced teachers manage the communication challenges of today's classroom. Challenges that teachers face include the growing diversity of the student body, the impact on gender and classroom communication, the increasing numbers of students being educated in regular education classrooms annually, and students with learning disabilities. Authors Robert G. Powell and Dana Caseau believe it is important to challenge teachers to reflect on the ways their personal cultures influence their expectations about appropriate classroom communication and ways to demonstrate learning. Drawing from the fields of communication and education, Powell and Caseau provide theoretical models and useful strategies for the improvement of instructional practices. This textbook is distinctive in its integration of information from a variety of sources to fashion a viewpoint that focuses on special needs of the individual learner. Much of the information shared in this,text derives from the authors' own action research experiences in schools and from reading the experiences of others, including many teachers, parents, and children. Their experiences, combined with the cross-disciplinary approach, produce a volume of unique perspectives and considerable insight. Students and teachers in the communication and education disciplines will find this text to be a practical and invaluable tool for classroom teaching.