Techne and Technical Communication: Toward a Dialogue

The classical Greek discourse on techne has much to offer technical communication teachers concerned about the relationship between theory and practice, but this potential has not yet been realized. Plato's and Aristotle's discussions about the relationship between techne and rhetoric, for example, encompass questions about the rhetorical goals of the speakedwriter and about the role of theory in teaching rhetorical art that are of continuing relevance to the modern discourse on technical communication. The aim of this article is to identify several points upon which a fruitful dialogue between ancient and modern discourses can begin. First, I supply some background on how the term techne was used up through the fourth century BCE. Then I discuss how the modern discourse on technical communication (including material from popular textbooks) both converges with and departs from Plato's and Aristotle's statements on the relationship between techne and rhetoric. Finally, I point out areas for further discussion as teachers of technical communication continue to reflect upon and refine their pedagogies.     

Rules versus analogies in children's spelling: Evidence for task dependence

Two experiments were conducted to investigate developmental changes in children's use of rime-level units of sound-to-spelling correspondence when spelling nonwords under varying task demands. In Experiment 1, nonwords were presented in isolation. Older children spelled more of the nonwords by analogy than younger children. Experiment 2 adopted versions of the clue word technique employed by Goswami (1988a) and found that significantly more analogous, rime-based responses were given to the same stimuli in both younger and older children. However, fewer analogous responses were given when the salience of the clue word was reduced by presentation of multiple target nonwords. The results suggest that while children in the early stages of development possess the ability to use rime-based units in spelling, they do not always make spontaneous use of this analogy strategy. However, when the potential to use rime-based units is highlighted by task demands, as is the case in Experiment 2 when a clue word is provided, even young children make considerable use of analogy in spelling.     

Systematically inflected versus grapheme modified signing: An educational viewpoint

Inflections may be interpolated into signed sequences by adding fingerspelled English inflectional morphemes to signs and fingerspelling irregular forms in which the bound morpheme is changed (grapheme modified signing), or by introducing signs corresponding to the major English inflections which can be associated with existing or newly coined bound morphemes (systematically inflected signing). The SIS method may be much less complex than GMS if it does not attempt to provide cues to the spoken form, or it may be painstakingly matched to the production features of speech at the risk of increasing its complexity. Further knowledge on the extent to which inflected signs may be systematized and on the extent to which integration of SIS and GMS may be desirable is contingent upon research into the production, decoding and ease of learning parameters of gestural communication.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Efficacy of Multimedia Instruction in Counseling Skill Development

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of multimedia instruction on students' counseling skill development. The participants were 73 beginning‐level counselor education students (20 men and 53 women, ages ranging from 24 to 47 years). Ratings of students' pre‐ and posttest video counseling tapes were used to assess the effects of the multimedia approach. The results found that there was no statistically significant difference among the levels of students' counseling skill development across the 3 (high‐tech multimedia, low‐tech multimedia, and traditional instruction) treatment groups.     

Remembering Activities Performed Versus Imagined: A Comparison of Children with Mental Retardation and Children with Normal Intelligence

CHILDREN with mental retardation and children with normal intelligence were asked to perform a series of tasks or to only imagine performing them. They were then asked to remember which tasks had been performed and which had been imagined at an immediate interview and after an eight week delay. There were no overall differences between the two groups in the number of correct responses. However, all children gave more correct responses to specific probes than to open‐ended probes and remembered activities performed better than those imagined. Performance was more accurate for both groups at the immediate interview than at the delayed interview. Responses to questions about activities neither performed nor imagined were good for both groups of children to the initial questions but decreased significantly in response to a follow‐up probe. Accuracy of responses to these misleading questions decreased over the eight week delay.     

Teaching Hypertext Composition

Composing hypertext documents can be an enriching path into the world of technical communication. In learning to produce hypertext, students are introduced to an important form of written composition that encompasses not only text generation, but also visual communication and information architecture. In this article, I provide a rationale for teaching hypertext composition and then some specific curricular suggestions in two parts, one for teaching beginners, and one for teaching more advanced students.     

A study of the validity of four types of student ratings of college teaching assessed on a criterion of student achievement gains

The purpose of the study was to investigate relationships between student ratings of college teaching using four types of student rating instruments and pre- vs. post-student achievement gains in 36 sections of an undergraduate analytic geometry and calculus course. Student rating instruments used varied according to type of items (high vs. low inference) and focus (students rating their own perceived growth vs. rating the instructor). Data were collected on 799 students (66% freshmen; 16% sophomore; and 15% juniors) at the University of Florida, and relationships were analyzed using the Pearson product-moment correlation technique. Significant relationships were not found between student ratings and student achievement.