Thomas Barker, Director of Technical Communication and Rhetoric

1
Strategies for Integrating Curriculum and
Instruction in Technical Communication

• Thomas Barker
• Texas Tech University

2
Project Overview
Goal To find a way to match the intercultural
curriculum (textbook) to the instructional
situation (classroom).

• 1 Assessment Tools
• Textbook rubric
• Context rubric

• 2 Research
• Contextual Inquiry

• 3 Conclusions
• Validation of the assessment tools

3
Approaches to the Project

• Practical application
• Research methodology
• Both

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Practical Application

• Intercultural teaching elements
• Contextual elements

5
Intercultural Teaching Elements

• Awareness
• Information
• Practice

6
Textbook Rubric
7
Contextual Elements

• Teacher preparation and readiness
• Overall goals of the course
• Classroom environment
• Existing classroom teaching practices

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Burkean Pentad

• Purpose
• Goals for teaching the service course.
• Scene
• Classrooms where the course will be taught and
  cultural makeup of the student population.
• Agent
• Instructors teaching a service course in
  technical communication with intercultural
  communication as a component.
• Act
• Teaching intercultural communication through
  awareness, information, and practice.
• Agency
• The textbook under consideration.

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Burkean Ratios

• Purpose-agency
• Does the textbook meet the course goals?
• Scene-agency
• Does the textbook suit the classroom situation?
• Agent-agency
• Does the textbook meet instructors
  informational needs when teaching intercultural
  communication?
• Act-agency
• Does the textbook meet the instructors teaching
  techniques or styles?

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Categories of Characteristics

• Course/Program Characteristics
• Purpose-agency
• Does the textbook meet the course goals?
• Scene-agency
• Does the textbook suit the classroom situation?
• Instructor Characteristics
• Agent-agency
• Does the textbook meet instructors
  informational needs when teaching intercultural
  communication?
• Act-agency
• Does the textbook meet the instructors teaching
  techniques or styles?

11
Context Rubric
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How to Read Assessment Figures
13
Research Methodology

• Contextual inquiry
• Results for textbooks (Lannon and Markel)
• Results for the TTU instructional context

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Contextual Inquiry

• Useful for studying implementation of
  technologies
• Guidelines
• Data gathering in the users workplace
• Data gatherers and users form a partnership
• Data gathering should focus on a set of
  concerns
• Methods
• Questionnaire, audio recordings, focus group
  meetings

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Results for Lannon
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Results for Markel
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Course and Program Characteristics at TTU
18
Instructor Characteristics at TTU
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Conclusions

• Well prepared teachers do well with most
  curriculums
• Assessment tools are useful beyond the scores

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Thank you!
Questions?