Workshop - The Communication Practicum

Formal classroom instruction is often supposed to provide students with opportunities to develop critical communication competencies.  But courses also privilege bodies of knowledge, along with methods of producing knowledge and evaluations of student comprehension.  The modern university, to use ancient terminology, is more often concerned with episteme, or abstract knowledge, then with techné, or the practical embodied knowledge of how. 

The Communication Practicum is not a class in any formal sense and it is not at all interested in theory, abstract knowledge, or comprehension. The purpose of the practicum is to focus exclusively on building and improving communication skills – it is a place to cultivate the techné of communication.  The communication practicum will address skills in five main areas: interpersonal relationships, teamwork (or small group work), writing, public speaking, and leadership.  During each meeting, students will be presented with 2-3 particular skills and will be asked to participate in simulations or exercises designed to practice those skills. The goal is to focus exclusively on communication practices in hopes of helping students become better communicators as partners in interpersonal relationships, as teammates in groups, as writers, as speakers, and as leaders.