Communication-intensive Courses Symposium 2019

Prof. Deanna P. Dannels is Professor of Communication and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at North Carolina State University. Her research explores theoretical and curricular protocols for teacher training and development; as well as frameworks for designing, implementing, and assessing oral communication across the disciplines. Her book Eight Essential Questions Teachers Ask: A Guidebook for Communicating with Students delineates these questions based on ten years of empirical data; providing research-grounded recommendations for addressing emergent teacher concerns. Additionally, her co-authored book Oral Communication in the Disciplines: A Resource for Teacher Development and Training provides practical advice, based on scholarly evidence, for teachers in all disciplines invested in supporting the development of students’ communication competence. Prof. Dannels is currently the editor of Communication Education, a major national journal focused on scholarship that explores the intersections of communication, teaching, and learning.

Prof. Steve Walsh is Visiting Professor in Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. He was Head of Applied Linguistics and Communication at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University until recently. Most of his working life has been spent abroad, working as an English language teacher and teacher educator in Spain, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Poland and China. He is committed to teacher education, especially second language teacher education, and enjoys working with teachers to develop a closer understanding of teaching and learning in all contexts. He is interested in all aspects of classroom discourse, especially the relationship between ‘talk’ and learning. In addition to describing the interaction which takes place in a range of contexts, he is also interested in developing interactional competence among both teachers and learners and in making reflective practice a key element of professional development. When he’s not busy with academic work, he enjoys hiking, cycling, travelling and socializing.