SMC Core Curriculum Course Proposal Form
Supplement 2: Teaching and Learning
Proposer: Makiko Imamura
Department: Communication
Course: COMM112 Interpersonal Communication
a) Syllabus: Current course syllabus containing a course description and a list of learning
outcomes. The course’s learning outcomes must include coverage of the Learning
Outcomes associated with the Core Curriculum Learning Goal for which the course is
being proposed.
Please see Supplement 1: Syllabus and Schedule.
b) Teaching and Learning: A narrative that explains how the course will guide students
toward achieving each Learning Outcome and how coursework (e.g., papers, exams,
videotaped presentations) will be used to measure student achievement of each
Learning Outcome. Please address the outcomes directly and one by one.
Overview of Course Content and Assessment
COMM112 Interpersonal Communication course is designed to provide students
with theoretical and practical knowledge of interpersonal communication and its outcomes
in various contexts (e.g., intercultural, workplace, friendship, romantic relationship, family,
and conflict) in contemporary American society (i.e., late 20th-21st century). At the
completion of this course, students are expected to be able to provide theoretically
grounded explanations of interpersonal communication behaviors and relational outcomes,
to critically evaluate theories and literature on interpersonal communication, and to
conduct a basic research project using a social scientific methodology (see also Course
Objectives in Syllabus). From a practical standpoint, theoretical knowledge helps students
improve their interpersonal communication and relationship management skills. Hence,
this course is structured to enrich students’ understanding of “what it has meant and
means to be a human in relationship with others.”
In general, assessment tools used in this course include formal paper assignments
(e.g., research project phase 1 and phase 2), reflection assignments (e.g., journals), group
project, quizzes, and exams. In general, reflection assignments provide students with
opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of the learned theories and concepts by
reflecting on their experiences and observations. Quizzes and exams are used to help
students establish accurate understanding and practical applications of the learned
theories and concepts. Paper assignments are designed to assess students’ ability to
conduct a basic research project on a topic of their choice. The following section will
address how each Learning Outcome is achieved in this course (i.e., Teaching and
Learning).
Learning Outcome 1 (i.e., examine human activity in particular periods or places from a
social, cultural or historical perspective)
COMM112 primarily focuses on social and cultural perspectives in understanding
our everyday communication behaviors. The majority of course content adheres to
interpersonal communication in social contexts, such as friendship, romantic relationship,
family, and workplace in the U.S. Students examine their identity (e.g., gender, sexual
orientation, race, and ethnicity), role (i.e., roles in workplace, family, and romantic
relationship), and communication behaviors (e.g., self-disclosure, use of verbal and
nonverbal languages, and conflict management styles) in these contexts. In addition, this
course provides opportunities for students to take racial, ethnic, and national culture into
account for culture shapes human behaviors in various communication contexts. For
example, students learn differences in communication behaviors and relationship
maintenance in the individualistic (i.e., American) and collectivistic (e.g., China, Japanese,
and Korean) cultures.
Learning Outcome 1 is assessed primarily in the reflection assignments followed by
quizzes and exams. The reflection assignments often ask students to reflect on their own
identities and roles in their day-to-day communication situations. Some examples of the
reflection assignment questions/statements include “Describe how, in a recent
conversation, your self-fulfilling prophecy influenced the outcome of the conversation or
the situation,” and “During a conflict episode in your own family, who takes the ‘blamer’
role, ‘placate’ role, ‘computer’ role, and ‘distracter’ role? Do you think that these four roles
depict communication process during conflict?” Through these exercises, students build indepth understanding of their self-concept, communication behaviors, and the
consequences of communication behaviors on human relationships in contemporary
American society. Furthermore, quizzes and exams are used to test students’ ability to
articulate interpersonal communication as the fundamental human activity.
Learning Outcome 2 (i.e., demonstrate an understanding of theories of human behavior,
relations, culture, or institutions; or interpretations of historical causation and change)
COMM112 is taught as a theory based content course. Thus, it is expected that
students learn the major theories of interpersonal communication and interpersonal
relationships and that they can provide explanations and interpretations of their everyday
communication behaviors using an appropriate theoretical framework. For example,
attraction theory explains why we are drawn to others. As the course content develops,
uncertainty reduction theory and social penetration theory illustrate the functions of
communication (e.g., self-disclosure) in the development of interpersonal relationships.
Predicted outcome value theory and social exchange theory further describe the underlying
human motives to maintain existing relationships. In addition, several other
communication models that describe impression formation, conflict management styles,
and intercultural communication are discussed. In intercultural communication contexts,
Hofstede’s taxonomies explain communicative and behavioral differences in various
intercultural contexts.
Similar to Learning Outcome 1, Learning Outcome 2 is assessed primarily in the
reflection assignments followed by quizzes and exams. Students have opportunities to
articulate their understanding of these theories in the reflection assignments. In addition,
quizzes and exams assess accuracy and depth of students’ understanding of the theories.
Typically, multiple choice and true/false questions are designed to assess accuracy of
understanding, while short answer/essay questions are designed to assess depth of
understanding. Students are also highly encouraged to use a theory that is relevant to a
topic of their choice in their research project paper assignments.
Learning Outcome 3a and 3b (i.e., employ social science or historical methodology to
collect and interpret evidence about the social world)
Two components of Learning Outcome 3 are explicitly and implicitly encompassed
in COMM112. In the discipline of communication, interpersonal communication is studied
through the social scientific lens. This includes experiment and survey (i.e., online, paper,
interviews) methodologies as well as statistical (and content) analyses to draw a
conclusion about human communication behaviors. The textbook is written based on the
findings from previous social scientific research and the majority of additional reading
materials involve prior studies using an experiment and/or survey method. These course
materials ensure that students are exposed to one or more of these methodologies and
analytical tools. Furthermore, students are expected not only to gain general knowledge
about the methodological approach in interpersonal communication but also to learn how
to conduct a basic research project using an appropriate method.
Learning Outcome 3 is assessed primarily in the research project paper
assignments, quizzes, and exams. Students’ comprehension of social scientific research
articles is assessed using quizzes and exams. The two-sequence research project paper
assignments assess students’ learning in terms of their ability to choose variables in the
topic of their choice, conduct library research and identify social scientific research articles,
write a sufficient literature review on the topic, construct a basic survey (i.e., close-ended
or interviews), collect and analyze a small set of data, and interpret and synthesize the
results. The data is analyzed using either a statistical procedure for close-ended survey or a
content/thematic analysis for interviews. As students write their discussion section of the
paper, they are asked to summarize and synthesize the findings by providing implications
to the society we live in. Overall, the paper assignments, quizzes, and exam aim to teach
students skills to interpret the findings from their own and from the existing social
scientific studies in the context of interpersonal communication.