Concept Mapping to Improve Student Learning
Sarah Florini
PhD Candidate
Department of Communication and Culture
Abstract
During my participation in the Teagle Collegium Inquiry on Action, I worked as an instructor
teaching C122 Interpersonal Communication at Indiana University. Teaching C122 in Fall
2008, one of the major challenges I faced was helping students integrate and synthesize course
material. Students tended to see each class meeting’s material as discrete and loosely related
concepts, never being able to clearly understand or articulate how these concepts fit together.
The following spring semester, I incorporated concept mapping into my approach in hopes of
addressing this issue. When compared to Fall 2008, the Spring 2009 students demonstrated an
increased ability to use course concepts in conjunction with one another, produced more
nuanced analyses, and consistently scored higher on class assignments and exams. These
students also demonstrated an increased ability to retain and use course concepts in class
discussion and in group presentations. While a number of factors may have contributed to this
improvement in overall performance, I believe that concept mapping was a key factor in
producing these results.
1. Introduction
C122 Interpersonal Communication at Indiana University uses a somewhat untraditional
approach. Rather than being prescriptive, C122 is descriptive. Traditionally, interpersonal
communication courses focus on teaching students theories and skills that will help them develop
effective communication skills. The goal of C122, on the other hand, it to explore not how
students should communication, but how they actually do communicate. The course takes an
ethnographic approach to interpersonal communication. Course reading are excerpts from
primary research by anthropologists, linguistics, sociologists, and scholars of performance
studies. The course explores how various communicative strategies are related to larger social
and cultural structures of power, race, gender, ethnicity, and nationality.
The primary learning objective for the course is to denaturalize students’ everyday
communicative practices in order for them to begin to understand how communication and our
socio-cultural reality are mutually constitutive. The course provides students with basic
ethnographic tools and theories and asks them to examine the interactions of their day-to-day
lives. Students’ are encouraged to think critically about how communicative practices are related
to issues of power and culture and to draw their own conclusions based on their our ethnographic
research conducted over the course of the semester.
The major assignment is an ethnography project that the students work on throughout the
semester. This is an opportunity for students to conduct research and produce knowledge about
communication, rather than simply absorbing knowledge created by scholars. The assignment
requires that they select two situations involving 4-6 people to record and compare. For each of
the 2 interactions, the students must make a transcript for 3-5 minutes of the recorded
conversation capturing paralinguistic features of participants’ speech (such as pacing, pausing,
pitch, and volume). They must also write a set of fieldnotes for each interaction in which they
apply theories from the readings to explore how communication functioned in each situation.
The final portion of the project is a paper that examines both interactions to draw conclusions
about language and culture in these interactions. (See Appendix A for assignment description
handout.)
I am an associate instructor for C122 Interpersonal Communication at Indiana University. This
means I have primarily responsibility for my classes and am the instructor of record. The course
is multi-section standardized course and I work under the supervision of Course Director Jen
Robinson. However, while I use the standardized course syllabus, I have relative autonomy in
how I teach the course and am able to make minor changes to the syllabus (keeping the major
components intact so the course remains comparable across the all sections). I work
independently when it comes to lesson plans, exam content, homework assignments, in-class
work, and grading criteria.
Each semester, I teach two sections of C122 with 24 students per section. All of my students
during the 2008-2009 year were “traditional” college students in the age range of 18-22, and this
is the norm at the university. Indiana University’s student population is overwhelming white. As
of the fall semester of 2008, the undergraduate student body was a total of 40,354 students. Of
those, 1,749 were African American, 1,047 were categorized as “Hispanic,” 1,572 were Asian (it
is unclear if this includes international students from Asia or only Asian Americans), and 116
were Native American. The remaining 35,870 students were white (this includes people who
identify as Jewish). Underrepresented minority groups (defined as African American, Native
American, and “Hispanic”) comprise only 7.2% of IU’s undergraduate student body. 1 The
student body is roughly balanced in terms of gender. The students enrolled in my classes in
2008-2009 were representative of the broader student body, with the one exception that three of
my four classes had significantly more women than men. (See Appendix B for the specific
demographic breakdown of my classes.)
Each class meeting is comprised of a blend of student presentations, class discussion, and “minilectures.” For most of the classes, student groups of 4-5 students open the class with a 10-15
minute presentation that covers the readings for that day. The presentations guidelines instruct
the students to highlight the key points of the articles, cover the key terms used by the author(s),
provide a media example that illustrates on of the principles they are covering, explain how the
reading(s) relate to concepts covered in previous class meetings, and offer their own thoughts
and opinions. After the presentation, I facilitate the rest of the class timed based on what the
presentation covered well, left out, didn’t cover clearly, etc. I use a blend of class discussion and
lecture in which I cover and clarify difficult concepts and then prompt students to discuss.
2. Objectives
My primary goal this semester was to help students create stronger connections between the
theories used in the course. In the past, I have found this to be a challenge. Students seem to
think of each day’s material as a discrete unit and do not seem understand how that material
1
Indiana University, Indiana University Fact Book 2008-2009,
http://www.iu.edu/~upira/reports/standard/factbook/index.shtml, accessed 5-6-09.
2
relates to, builds on, or challenges ideas from previous and future classes. In other words, from
the students’ perspective, we cover Tuesday’s material, go home, and come back on Thursday to
learn separate, almost unrelated material. This approach hinders their understanding of concepts,
their ability to apply concepts, and their ability to conduct fruitful ethnographic work.
Essentially, this lack of synthesis makes it difficult to achieve the fundamental course
objectives.
Difficulty making connections between course concepts is a major obstacle to student learning.
Novak and Gowin have argued that “Except for a relatively small number of concepts acquired
very early by children through a discovery learning process, most concept meanings are learned
though the composite of propositions in which the concept to be acquired is embedded.”
Although concrete examples may facilitate learning, the meaning of a concept is increased and
made more precise by “the propositional statements that include the concept.” For example
“grass is green,” “plants are green,” “grass grows” are related propositional statements that when
taken together lead to an increased understanding of the concept “grass.” (15). As long as
students learn course concepts only as discrete and unrelated (or loosely related) bits of
information, they will not understand the material well and will likely retain little of it. Thus, in
the spring semester of 2009, I made the creation of connections between course ideas a central
component of my teaching.
3. Implementation
Based on Novak and Gowin’s discussion of concept mapping as “ a schematic device for
representing a set of concept meanings embedded in a framework of propositions” (15), I chose
to incorporate concept mapping into my Spring 2009 course assignments. Concept maps are
created by placing ideas in “bubbles” which are then joined using connecting phrases to create a
statement that describes the relationship between the concepts. According to Novak and Gowin,
creating such maps may help us to develop new propositional relationships between various
concepts and thereby create new, more complex or precise meanings (17).
I asked the students to create three concept maps over the course of the semester. C122 has four
units, and I asked the students to map the material from Units I-III, creating one map per unit
(Unit I material was one map, Unit II another, and Unit III yet another). I asked the students to
take 2-3 concepts from each class and add them to their maps after each class. They would then
turn in the maps when we had completed that unit. Below are some examples of student concept
maps.
3
Example of a Unit I Concept Map (Grade received: A)
When I introduced the concept maps, I explicitly explained why I had decided to include them in
the course and what I hoped the intended outcome would be. Beyond that, I was deliberately
somewhat vague. I explained to the students how to make a concept map and showed them an
example. I did this at the end of the second day of class (the first day that we covered material).
After introducing the maps, I asked the students to give me 2-3 concepts from that day’s class
that they considered to be key concepts and that should be included in their maps. I wrote the
concepts they gave me on the board, drew circles around each, and asked the students to tell me
how they would connect the ideas to one another. After completing this exercise, I told them to
take what we had generated and use it to begin their maps for Unit I. After this, I would end each
class by asking the students what the key concepts were and writing them on the board. I did this
through the end of Unit I. After that, I stopped making addressing key concepts at the end of
each class and left selecting them in the hands of the students. I feel that this provided enough
scaffolding at the beginning of the semester to help students pick out key ideas from the readings
and begin to be able to connection them. After Unit I, the students were then allowed to do this
more independently.
4
Example of a Unit II Concept Map (Grade received: B)
5
Example of a Unit III Concept Map (Grade received: C)
4. Assessment
It seems that the concept mapping did have an impact on overall student learning. This can be
seen in the grade distributions on the major multi-part project and on the two exams and in inclass activities such as discussions and presentations. In general, the grades for the spring
semester were higher than those of the fall semester. Further, students demonstrated an increased
ability to recall and to utilize concepts in class.
The primary project for the C122 is an ethnography project has three major components and is
completed in stages throughout the semester. The first and second portions of the project require
6
the students to collect ethnographic data and submit both fieldnotes and transcripts that report
their findings. The final component of the project is a paper in which the students are asked to
analyzed the data they collected and draw conclusions about based on theories covered during
the course. The grade distributions on the three parts of the ethnography project are as follows:
SPRING 2009 PROJECT PART 1
Section Section
Both
C
D
Sections
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
FALL 2008 PROJECT PART 1
Section Section
Both
Total
A
B
Sections
per
grade
category
1
2
3
16
4
3
7
2
4
6
1
1
2
25
6
5
11
3
8
11
0
1
1
5
0
0
0
3
1
4
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
SPRING 2009 PROJECT PART 2
Section Section
Both
C
D
Sections
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
FALL 2008 PROJECT PART 2
Section Section
Both
Total
A
B
Sections
per
grade
category
1
0
1
19
5
7
12
4
2
6
0
1
1
12
2
2
4
3
4
7
3
0
3
10
2
2
4
0
3
3
1
0
1
2
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
7
3
1
4
3
3
5
1
2
1
0
0
0
0
4
3
5
2
5
1
1
2
0
0
0
0
0
2
3
6
3
1
4
3
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
7
5
1
6
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
4
10
6
4
9
4
2
1
0
1
0
0
5
10
10
3
11
2
2
2
0
0
0
0
0
Total
per
grade
category
19
19
7
1
0
Total
per
grade
category
25
16
4
0
0
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
FALL 2008 FINAL PAPER
Section Section
Both
Total
A
B
Sections
per
grade
category
1
3
4
20
6
5
11
2
3
5
0
0
0
10
1
4
5
2
3
5
2
2
4
10
2
1
3
3
0
3
2
0
2
3
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
SPRING 2009 FINAL PAPER
Section Section
Both
Total
C
D
Sections
per
grade
category
3
6
9
24
6
5
11
2
2
4
2
2
4
16
7
3
10
1
1
2
0
2
2
4
0
0
0
2
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0*
0
0
For the first part of the project, the fall and spring grade distributions were roughly equivalent.
The only difference is that spring grades were more evenly distributed, while the Fall 2008 had
slightly more Bs than As. With the second part of the project, there begins to be a notable
difference in the grade distributions. The Spring 2009 grades were significantly higher than that
of the Fall 2008 students. In Spring 2009, only 4 students earned grades below a B-, compared
with 12 the previous semester. Thus, there was a significant increase in the number of As and Bs
in the spring semester. Additionally, the spring semester had five students score 98% or above
(and A+ by C122’s grading scale), compared with one in the fall. Again with the final paper, the
grades were noticeably higher in the spring. The Spring 2009 students had no Ds or Fs and only
4 Cs, compared with 3 Ds and 10 Cs in the Fall. The number of both As and Bs increased from
the fall to the spring, and more students scored a 98% or above (A+).
Exam scores also improved in Spring 2009. The course has two exams, a midterm and a final
(not comprehensive). The overall the Spring 2009 grades were markedly higher (though the
Spring 2009 grades had more Fs as well) than the Fall 2008 grades, particularly in the Midterm
which. The fall semester had only 2 As (both A-s) on the Midterm exam, compared with the
spring’s 10 As. The Final Exam scores for the two semesters were roughly comparable, though
the Spring had significantly fewer Cs and slightly more As and Bs. (For exam grade distributions
see Appendix C.)
*
I did have one F in this section. However, it was a student who simply failed to turn in his final paper. Thus, since
his grade was not based on the quality of his work, I have excluded him from consideration here.
8
More important than the grade distribution was the increase in the sophistication with which
students were able to use course concepts. Below are examples from A, B, and C papers from
both fall and spring. Below I have excerpts from an A, B, and C paper from each semester.
Examples from A Papers (Both high As)
EXPLANATION AND
EXCERPT FROM STUDENT PAPER
COMMENTARY
Fall 2008
• Paper had a clear argument.
“In my second set of fieldnotes, which was female(i.e., The female to male ratio of
dominated, the females used the rapport-style of
a mixed gender group
conversation. However, the males also began to use this
determines whether female or
style during the recording. The males adapted to this style
male communication norms will
by sharing personal stories and experiences, mostly ones
dominate.)
dealing with relationships. This occurrence was contrary to
• Student was attempting to
what the Tannen article stated about how men
nuance theories we had learned
communicate. It was clear that they were doing this as a
about cross-sex communication
way to connect with the females and relate to what we were
• Though the analysis is astute,
the student does not use the
saying. … [One example of this was] in the maledominated recording, the males referred to seeing their
theories in conjunction with one
girlfriends as ‘getting their nut.’ However, when the
another very well
recording had a female majority, the males used the words
‘relationship’ and ‘couples.’”
Spring 2009
“I believe the gender norms usually associated with
communication were enhanced or disregarded based on the
primary social group affiliation of each individual. For
Kathy and Jill that was Anarchism, and thus they follow
[both] male and female norms, challenging the division of
male and female within these communication norms.
Emma and I, though both liberal, stayed closer to
traditional female norms, perhaps because our identity as
females is more important to us that our identity according
to our political affiliations. Kevin and Tom followed male
communication norms extremely closely because they
primarily identified as men rather than members of a
political group. … It is also possible that their more
mainstream political affiliations are already ingrained in
our notions of gender.”
9
•
•
•
Paper had a clear argument
While this passage doesn’t cite
specific theories from the
readings, the conclusions she
draws are based on a synthesis
of these reading (which she
discusses earlier in the paper).
She is not simply identifying
social groups she found while
doing the project, but
examining how one’s
membership in different social
groups can impact the ways in
which they adhere to or reject
conventional communicative
norms.
Examples from B Papers
EXPLANATION AND
COMMENTARY
• Paper had a weak argument.
• The student is trying to
complicate a theory that was
only applied to men’s
interactions in our readings.
• S/he does not bring in other
closely related course concepts
about gender
• The paper reads as individual
examples of discrete theories.
Spring 2009
• The paper had a weak
“This male, John, undoubtedly held demeanor power. Even
argument.
in the discursive conditions of ‘girl talk,’ he was able to
• S/he is trying to combine
demonstrate demeanor power by somehow fitting himself
multiple theories (discursive
into the female norm[s] of the situation. Each of my
conditions, (demeanor) power,
[female] friends, including myself, is extremely fond of our
and gender)
friend John. No matter what, he had the power to make
• The point needed to be made
each of us happy while including us all at the same time.”
more clearly and elaborated
upon.
EXCERPT FROM STUDENT PAPER
Fall 2008
“Kathy was somewhat new to the group she was
conversing with. She told the most stories and did a lot of
joking when the tone was more relaxed and not serious.
She may also have been trying to establish a form of
demeanor power among the girls she had just met. This
shows that gaining power and that Kiesling’s forms of
power do not apply to men only.”
Examples from C Papers
EXPLANATION AND
EXCERPT FROM STUDENT PAPER
COMMENTARY
Fall 2008
• No clear argument
“With the first recording (all females) there are many
• The paper was a list of
examples that coincide with what is said in Male-Female
examples of how the student’s
Miscommunication [SIC]. On page (162) [SIC] Maltz and
research did or did not match
Borker state, ‘Women have a greater tendency to ask
the theories presented in our
questions and demand encouragement from the other
readings
listeners’. [SIC] The women that had the role of listener
• Student was able to identify
would give encouraging responses ever [SIC] so often to
such examples but was not able
tell the leader that they were still listening and interested in
to move on to deeper analysis
what they had to say. … There is [SIC] a lot more instances
• Theories were not related to one
where questions are being asked and people are acting
another.
interested, and this is barely evident in the second
• Grammar and proofreading
recording, when more males are involved.”
problems
Spring 2009
“One interesting part of both genders interacting with one
another is the topic of conversation and how it changes. In
my first study of fieldnotes I found that men speaking can
10
•
•
Paper had no clear argument
The ideas addressed (length of
discussion on one topic and use
of questions to facilitate
stay of [SIC] a specific topic for a shorter time period,
whereas in my second fieldnotes with the women around
the topic changes less rapidly. A reason for this could be
that women tend to ask more questions than men do or
because they contribute more in conversation to keep in
from ending. This study can refer to Maltz and Borker’s
reading in ‘Male-Female Miscommunication.’”
•
•
conversations) are two closely
related topics discussed in a
reading addressing gender and
communication.
While s/he is not combining
different theories, he was able
to use two different concepts
from one reading
Vague in referring to the
reading be used (“Male-Female
Miscommunication” by Maltz
and Borker)
The final papers from Spring 2009 show a remarkable improvement in their use of course
concepts. In the fall, students tended to use concepts in isolation, often presenting a sequence of
examples that each demonstrated a different concept. In the spring, the papers showed more use
of concepts in conjunction with one another. This led to more sophisticated analyses.
In addition to the improvement in written work, I also noticed a change in the classroom. While I
have no specific and quantifiable data, it seemed as though the students in my spring semester
classes were able to retain material longer and used it more often in class discussions. On several
occasions in class discussion I asked students about specific ideas from previous classes. Each
time two or three students were able to remember and recount said information without the aid of
their notes, even if the material was covered several weeks prior (and wasn’t going to be on the
next exam). In the fall semester, I felt like I struggled to get students to remember material from
one class to the next. And when I asked students to talk about something we covered earlier in
the semester, very seldom was anyone able to do so.
Finally, I noticed as significant change in students presentations between the fall and spring
semester. Students are required to do two group presentations on the readings, and most classes
begin with these presentations. One of my requirements for the presentation is for students to
relate the reading(s) on which they are presenting to previous readings and/or concepts. In the
fall, the students struggled with this. Looking back over my notes from the fall presentations, it
seems that students often had difficulty fulfilling this requirement. Students had few comparisons
(never more than one or two), and the comparisons they did make tended to be unclear and
vague. While not all of the presentations in the spring did an outstanding job with this
requirement, I noticed a drastic improvement. Spring students often made many more
comparisons than the fall students, especially near the end of the semester when there was much
more material to draw on. One of the spring presentations offered 6 other readings or concepts
that related to the reading on which they were presenting and explained these connections
clearly. None of the fall presentations came close to this level of thought and detail.
11
5. Analysis and Reflection
I believe that concept mapping helped my students better grasp and use course concepts. While
the first part of the ethnography project in the spring was comparable to the same assignment in
the fall, there was noticeable improvement from one semester to the next on the second portion
of the project and the final papers. Not only was the overall grade distribution higher, I found an
improvement in the sophistication with which students used the theories from the readings in
their projects.
However, I do not want to be overly celebratory about the benefits of concept mapping. It is
unlikely that I can attribute all of the improvement in student work to the concept maps. There
were a number of other factors that could also have had an impact. Specifically – a change in the
exam format, the amount of experience students have had doing college level work, and changes
in my teaching style.
First, while the test scores did increase somewhat from the fall to the spring semester, I can not
be certain that this is because of the concept maps. A change in the exam format may be partially
responsible. This is because I believe that the original format of my exams may was ill-suited for
assessing the kinds of learning I encouraged in C122. Originally, my exams were comprised of
multiple choice with one essay question. Students have consistently had difficulty on these
exams. The exams cover a good deal of material, which I know is partly to blame. But, I also
wondered if there was a problem with the format. My approach to C122 is one that focuses on
ambiguity and student input. There can be many “right” answers (though there are better and
worse answers) and students’ lived experience is valued as a source of knowledge. A multiple
choice exam with concrete right and wrong answers did not seem aligned with this approach. So,
in the spring semester I changed the format of the exams. About half of the exam remained
multiple choice questions, with the other half short answer and essay questions. The addition of
these open-ended questions allowed the students leeway in how they answered questions. And it
is possible that the increase in the test scores is attributable to this change.
Second, the level of student experience in “doing college” could have been a factor. The fall and
spring semesters were roughly equivalent in terms of how many freshmen, sophomores, juniors
and seniors I had in each class (See Appendix D for specific figures). But, both semesters my
classes were heavily freshmen (as one would expect in a 100 level course). The first semester in
college is often a challenging transition for freshmen, and they may struggle with the work.
However, by the spring semester, most have adjusted and are more able to handle college level
classes and produce college level work. This might have been partially responsible for the
changes I saw between the fall and the spring.
Finally, part of the improvement may have been the result of my teaching practices, rather than
the maps themselves. While my fundamental teaching style did not change, modeling the kinds
of thinking I was hoping to see in my students was more central to my approach in Spring 2009
than in past semesters. I worked to highlight the relationship between course concepts and to
help show the students where connections could be made. Knowing that the students had to
create the concept maps helped to keep me focused on teaching concepts in conjunction with one
another and showing how they could be used in conjunction. (Also, I should note, the
12
presentation requirements served to reinforce the importance of relating course ideas to each
other because it explicitly requires the students to discuss the reading they are presenting in
conjunction with other ideas from past readings/classes.)
The concept maps received mixed reviews from my students. In class, on two separate occasions,
I asked the students what they thought about the concept maps, and I asked them to write down
anonymous feedback once. The comments I received in both the oral and the written feedback
were similar. Some students thought the concept maps were “easy points” (so they liked them).
Some thought that they were not particularly useful, while a few found them helpful. In class,
one student told me that she found them difficult because it forced her to think spatially,
something she is not accustomed to. Another told me that they were difficult for him because
sometimes he knew how two ideas related but had trouble “putting it into words.” I found both
comments encouraging because part of the goal of the concept maps was to get students to
approach the material in a way other than they normally would (though it does not necessarily
have to be spatially) and to articulate the connections between ideas (rather than leaving them
vague and intangible).
The concept maps were also good assessment tools. First, I was able to assess the level of critical
reading and critical thinking skill the students had (Were they able to pick out main ideas? Could
they see how these ideas related?). Also, the maps provided a quick and easy diagnostic of where
students were having problems with course material. It was easy to see if many students omitted
the same concept or had difficulty locating it on the map in relation to other concepts.
Despite the generally positive results in Spring 2009, there are a few things I will change when I
teach this class again. Spring 2009, I simply had the students turn in their maps, graded them,
and returned them. I believe that it would be fruitful to revisit students’ concept maps and to use
them for in-class exercises. Next semester, I would like to go beyond simply asking students to
create the maps and begin to have them revise maps, perhaps integrating in additional material
from units outside of the one mapped. I would also like to make more of their maps in the
classroom. I think the students would benefit from showing each other their maps and working
on creating maps together.
In general, I was pleased with the outcome of incorporating concept maps into my teaching. I felt
that they were useful not only for the students but also for me. It seemed to have a positive
impact on overall student learning, and it helped me remain reflexive about teaching in ways the
models and encourages synthesis of course material (which I am hoping also had a positive
impact on student learning).
6. References
National research Council. “Learning: From Speculation to Science.” in How People Learn:
Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. John Bransford, Ann Brown, and Rodney Cocking eds.
National Academy Press: Washington, D.C., 2000.
Novak, Joseph and Gowin, Bob. “Concept Mapping for Meaningful Learning.” in Learning How
to Learn. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
13
Work cited in student examples:
Kiesling, Scott F. “Power and Language of Men.” in A Cultural Approach to Interpersonal
Communication: Essential Readings. Leila Monaghan and Jane Goodman eds. Blackwell:
Malden, MA, 2007.
Maltz, Daniel and Borker, Ruth. “A Cultural Approach to Male-Female Miscommunication.” in
A Cultural Approach to Interpersonal Communication: Essential Readings. Leila Monaghan and
Jane Goodman eds. Blackwell: Malden, MA, 2007.
Tannen, Deborah. “Preface and ‘Put Down that Paper and Talk to Me!’” in A Cultural Approach
to Interpersonal Communication: Essential Readings. Leila Monaghan and Jane Goodman eds.
Blackwell: Malden, MA, 2007.
14
Appendix A: Ethnography Project Description Handout
Sarah Florini
C122 Interpersonal Communication
Spring 2009
The Parts of the Ethnography Project
There are five pieces to the Interpersonal Communication Ethnography Project: the proposal,
two sets of fieldnotes and transcripts, a group presentation, and a final ethnography.
The Proposal
In the proposal, you should lay out what two situations you are going to tape record, why you
think they are interesting and what you think you will find similar or different about the two
situations. Good situations to record can range from your friends hanging out in the evening to a
Bible study, to meetings of various clubs and organizations on campus. The preference in this
course is to work on campus, but other situations may be acceptable if cleared by your instructor.
All people in the situation need to be told that they are being recorded for a class project and
agree to sign a waiver that they agree to be taped. Work with children, even your own, needs to
be cleared by the IU Human Subjects Committee.
Although you don’t have to know everybody you are taping, you should usually be familiar with
the situation and understand what kind of behavior usually happens. Follow your instinct about
what is interesting: Why is the group of friends you have from the dorm so funny? How does the
behavior of your friend Sue change when she is with her boyfriend, who she always fights with,
and when she is with other people? How does the head of your soccer intramural soccer team get
everybody to shut up and practice? How do your friends get ready for parties? Pick two
different times to tape this group of people, one perhaps more formal, one less formal; one with
someone’s parents, one without; one time with the guys down the hall from New York, one
without. You can also compare two different groups in the same setting—a fraternity house
meeting and a sorority house meeting. Think about how power and identity play out in these
settings and what is the social business or ends of the conversations you are taping. You might
also look at genres like story-telling, gossip, joking or the use of slang or cursing in these
settings.
Conversations should be naturally occurring (although it is fine to invited friends over with a
warning that they will be taped), have four to six people, and be held in a quiet enough place so
the tape recorder can pick up all the information. You should record on full size cassettes or a
digital audio recorder (you will have to burn the file to a CD).
Fieldnotes I
You've already done one set of fieldnotes, your greetings assignment. Now the job is to do the
same kind of observations as you did for the greetings assignment. But this time you both know
the people involved and have data you can go back to--the tape recordings and the transcripts
you make from the field notes. Just like with the greetings assignment, make sure you use thick
description in your notes. We are interested as much (or more) in why things happened as what
happened.
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The easiest way to start is to pick the most interesting part of the tape. You should tape for half
an hour to an hour and pick a part where conversation is lively. If you have a lot of blank spaces
in your tape you might need to put together pieces from different parts of the tape but the
preference is for one continuous stretch of conversation. Before this first fieldnotes assignment,
you will have read lots of general theories about language and some specific information about
how people use language including how intonation and questioning work, differences between
men and women and how people can swop from one topic of conversation to another. Use these
ideas to understand the specific piece of conversation you are focusing on.
Make sure to give yourself a lot of time for the transcription. It is hard to get a good
transcription and usually requires you to listen to the tape many times. One thing to focus on
when transcribing is what you've decided is interesting--how people will compete for attention,
how people ask questions, how people laugh at the same time. There are many transcription
symbols to help you capture these phenomenon but if you find a pattern that we haven't talked
about, make up a new symbol or way of transcribing it (just make sure you tell us what you've
done in your transcription notations!)
Fieldnotes II
By this point, you will have experience working with taking fieldnotes, transcribing and
connecting things to the big picture. You will, however, have a much broader range of readings
to choose from and in particular more information about social groups to help you understand the
behaviors you have observed. Questions you should ask yourself here are "how typical or
atypical is what I am seeing?" and "How do these behaviors strengthen or weaken social
groups?" Make sure you include a paragraph comparing the first and second fieldnote papers,
pointing out what you think your final ethnography will be about.
Final Ethnography Paper
This paper is a summary of all the material you've collected for the past semester. In it, you
should briefly restate the two field situations you've previously analyzed, and draw conclusions
about what light your data sheds on the larger theoretical issues that we have been discussing all
semester. You don't need to do anymore research for this paper, just present material from the
other projects to support your claims. But, don’t just restate what you wrote in your two sets of
fieldnotes. Use that material to draw conclusions.
Questions to consider:
What theories does your data support or contradict?
What theories would you create to deal with what you have found?
***You must have a clear argument that you are making in this paper. Don’t just give me a list
of things you noticed. Focus on a central idea – the difference in communication in public vs.
private, gender norms, etc.
Requirements:
The final paper should be 4-6 pages, double-spaced, 10 or 12-inch font with one-inch margins.
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You are required to use 3 different readings from our book. (Please cite specific passages in the
articles and give page numbers.) And you must reference your transcripts at least twice.
You must turn in the ethnography project in its entirety with your final paper. Please put all
the materials in an envelop with your name on it. The envelope should include:
Part 1: Recording with permission form, transcript, fieldnotes
Part 2: Recording with permission form, transcript, fieldnotes
Final Paper
A project missing any of these parts will receive a grade penalty (determined by how much is
missing).
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Appendix B: Demographic Breakdown of my Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 Sections
Fall 2008 Section A
African
American
Female
1
Male
0
“Hispanic”
0
1
Native
American
0
0
Asian/Asian White
American
1
13
0
5
Fall 2008 Section B
African
American
Female
0
Male
0
“Hispanic” Native
American
0
0
0
0
Asian/Asian White
American
0
17
0
5
Spring 2009 Section C
African
American
Female
1
Male
0
“Hispanic” Native
American
0
0
0
0
Asian/Asia White
American
0
18
0
4
Spring 2009 Section D
African
American
Female
2
Male
1
“Hispanic” Native
American
0
0
0
0
Asian/Asian White
American
0
7
0
12
18
Total
15
6
Total
17
5
Total
19
4
Total
9
13
Appendix C: Midterm and Final Exam Grade Distributions
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
FALL 2008 MIDTERM EXAM
Section Section
Both
Total
A
B
Sections
per
grade
category
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
2
2
2
1
3
18
2
2
4
4
7
11
3
4
7
17
2
4
6
4
0
4
1
1
2
6
1
1
2
2
0
2
0
0
0
0
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
FALL 2008 FINAL EXAM
Section Section
Both
Total
A
B
Sections
per
grade
category
0
0
0
5
0
1
1
2
2
4
0
3
3
21
5
6
11
2
5
7
0
2
2
13
5
1
6
5
0
5
2
0
2
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
SPRING 2009 MIDTERM EXAM
Section Section
Both
Total
C
D
Sections
per
grade
category
0
0
0
10
1
1
2
4
4
8
3
2
5
9
1
1
2
4
1
5
2
2
2
11
2
3
5
2
2
4
1
0
1
4
2
1
3
0
1
1
1
4
5
5
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
SPRING 2009 FINAL EXAM
Section Section
Both
Total
C
D
Sections
per
grade
category
0
1
1
9
1
1
2
2
4
6
5
1
6
25
8
5
13
4
2
6
2
1
3
8
0
2
2
0
3
3
0
1
1
3
0
1
1
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
19
Appendix D: Breakdown of Student Class Status
Freshmen
Sophomores
Juniors
Seniors
Fall 2008
Class A
7
14
2
0
Fall 2008
Class B
17
2
2
2
Spring 2009
Class C
12
5
4
3
20
Spring 2009
Class D
5
15
2
2