International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Volume 2, Number 2, July 2008
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to current issues pageResearch Article
Excerpt
Beyond Content, Deeper than Delivery: What Critique Feedback
Reveals about Communication Expectations in Design Education
In design education, the critique is a communication event
in which students present their design and critics provide feedback.
Presumably, the feedback gives the students information about their
progress on the design. Yet critic feedback also serves a socializing
function—providing students information about what it means to
communicate well in the design education context. Using a qualitative
research methodology, this study explores what critic feedback reflects
about expected communication competencies in design studios. Results
suggest that communication competence in this setting involves interaction
management, demonstration of design evolution, transparent advocacy
of intent, explanation of visuals, and the staging of the performance—all
of which imply a communicative identity for students that is tethered
to the content and delivery of the presentation, but has implications
beyond the content and delivery to the broader disciplinary culture.
Implications of this study provide insight for faculty and students
involved in pedagogical spaces in which feedback plays an important
role in the instructional process—suggesting its potential for
shaping disciplinary identities, relationships, and social contexts.
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Deanna Dannels
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
deanna_dannels@ncsu.edu
I am an Associate Professor and the Director of GTA Development for
the Department of Communication and the Associate Director of the Campus
Writing
and Speaking Program at North Carolina State University. I received
my Ph.D. in communication from the University of Utah (1999) with a
focus on instructional communication and communication across the curriculum.
My research interests focus on the teaching and learning of communication
in other disciplines, with a specific emphasis on preprofessional contexts.
My current projects explore social climate, feedback, classroom interaction,
and new technologies involved with teaching and learning communication
within the discipline of design. For my work
in the cross-curricular setting, I received the university-wide Richard
Felder Award for Excellence in Support of Teaching and Learning (2003).
Amy Housley Gaffney
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
AmyLHGaffney@gmail.com
I am currently a doctoral student in the Communication, Rhetoric and
Digital Media program at North Carolina State University. My master's
(Kent State University in Ohio) and bachelor's (Bethany College in West
Virginia) degrees are in communication. I teach introductory communication
courses, including Public Speaking and Interpersonal Communication,
and have worked as a research assistant in the Communication in Design
initiative. I am participating in the 2008-2009 Preparing the Professoriate
program at NC State. My research areas are communication across the
curriculum, instructional communication, and class participation. My
dissertation work is focused on instructional models for teaching communication
skills to design students.
Kelly Norris Martin
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
klnorris@ncsu.edu
I am a doctoral student in the Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media program at North Carolina State University. I also have a Masters of Science in communication from NC State. Over the past two years, I have been a research assistant for the Communication in Design initiative—examining design critiques and developing online communication modules for students. My teaching and research interests include visual credibility, visual rhetoric and communication across the curriculum. In 2007, I received the “Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant” award from the Instructional Development Division of the Southern States Communication Association Convention. I’m also working on a white paper funded by the National Nanotechnology Coordinating Office focused on how government and industry officials should communicate risks associated with nanotechnology to the public.