Communication Skills B—Communication Contexts Courses
Overview: In the Communication Contexts category students participate in and develop skills for communication in a variety of modes and contexts and within and across various domains. Students analyze and compare and contrast different communication situations and focus on at least two different modes of communication.Approved Courses:
COM 1000 Introduction to Communication Skills
Introduction to Communication Skills integrates basic principles of interpersonal communication with an introduction to career planning. It is an ambitious course intended to increase students' self-awareness, critical thinking and confidence while building skills for effectively dealing with common interpersonal challenges, including academic, relationship, employment, and cross-cultural communication. Skills such as public speaking and group communication are introduced and practiced to prepare students for typical requirements in their HPU curriculum and
professional life. Of particular significance is the emphasis on helping students to recognize that their college education is a means to an end; activities intended to heighten awareness of self, others, and career “realities” aid students in identifying (or confirming) their choice of college major, thereby reducing uncertainty and frustration in the critical first year.
Effective communication requires confidence, sensitivity, flexibility, knowledge, and practice. The ability to use a variety of communication skills well in different situations will be an asset in meeting the challenges of the students' personal, academic and professional lives. Through the use of readings, the workbook, process models, group discussions, role play, small group activities, and brief presentations, class members will collaborate to learn and practice these essential skills.
COM 1200 Foundations of Communication Studies
The course provides an introduction to the field of human communication studies and a
foundation for further study within the discipline. It introduces the core concepts, essential skills, and central issues in the field. The course examines the history of the discipline, essential
communication skills, key communication theories, and contexts such as intercultural, relational, group, organizational, rhetorical, and mediated communication.
COM 2500 Sex, Gender and Communication
Through communication processes we form and maintain our sexual identities and gender roles. These identities and roles, in turn, influence our communication competence and style. This course examines the complexities of sex, gender, and communication in interpersonal
relationships, educational environments, mass media, and the workplace. Students will study aspects of communication that influence individuals to behave in gender-specific ways, as well as sex differences in language use, conversational moves, and nonverbal behavior.
ED 2300 Introduction to Teaching
This course provides teacher candidates with an understanding of how elementary students differ in their development and approach to learning, and how to create supportive learning
environments with instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse students, using a variety of teaching strategies that encourage elementary students’ development of critical thinking and problem solving. The course also covers individual and group motivation and behavior among students at the K- 6 level. Students learn effective verbal, nonverbal, and media communication techniques to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the elementary classroom.
HIST 1717 Reacting to the Past
An introduction to major ideas and texts using “role playing” games to replicate the context in which these ideas acquired historical significance. Students explore moments of cultural and political crisis in a variety of cultures and time periods, including Ancient Greece, Ming China, and Puritan New England.
In order to make these texts come alive, this course will use historical simulation games in which members of the class adopt historical roles and then work individually and in teams to relive pivotal moments and debates in history. Students will explore how people communicated in two cultures very different from their own: Ancient Greece and Ming China. They will demonstrate their understanding of how people communicated in these cultures during historical simulation games, in which they will construct speeches and write papers from the perspective of their assigned roles. On an intrapersonal level, students will develop a more conscious awareness of their own values, beliefs, and biases by imaginatively reconstructing a way of thinking and communicating very different from their own. During the simulation games, students work in small groups and individually to try to persuade other “players” of their position or program. They do this on a one-to-one level and in a large group format, both inside and outside of class, using speeches, papers, and emails. They will need to master how to communicate effectively in a variety of different contexts in order to persuade others.
Beginning and Intermediate Modern Language Courses
HPU currently offers the following languages: Arabic (ARB), Chinese (Mandarin) (CHIN), French (FR), Hawaiian (HAWN), Japanese (JPE), Korean (KOR), and Spanish (SPAN). A sequence of four courses, each four semester credits, is offered in each language. With appropriate prior experience or study students may begin with a higher level course than 1100. Any one semester of beginning or intermediate language study taken at HPU or transferred from another college or university can be applied to satisfy the Communication Contexts requirement.
In these courses students learn to use the target language to reflect on their own thoughts and experiences, and to communicate in one-to-one conversations, small group discussions, and class presentations. Students will also read authentic materials in print and on the world wide web, and listen to authentic speakers of the target language in video media. Students must apply critical reasoning in structuring phrases and sentences in the target language where word order is not the same as English and in choosing appropriate vocabulary, appropriate level of formality of address for the interlocutor and situation, using transitions to connect ideas, and using idiomatic expressions. Students also apply critical reasoning in applying the rules of grammar of the target language, both spoken and written. Students are introduced to the culture of regions where the target language is spoken including unique vocabulary, expressions, gestures, art, literatures, institutions such as the education system, government, health care, and performances such as regional dances and music. As students progress from beginning to intermediate levels they are able to approach these activities with an increasing level of sophistication, but communication in the target language and analysis of culture are part of each level.
In the descriptions below the ____ can be filled in with the name of any language, e.g. ARB 1100 Beginning Arabic I. An Introduction to written and spoken Arabic.
___ 1100 Beginning ___ I An introduction to written and spoken _____. This is the first semester of a two-semester sequence.
___ 1200 Beginning ___ II An introduction to written and spoken _____. This is the second semester of a two-semester sequence.
____2100 Intermediate _____ I. Conversation, reading grammar and introduction to ____ culture. This is the first semester of a two-semester sequence.
____2200 Intermediate _____ II. Conversation, reading grammar and introduction to ____ culture. This is the second semester of a two-semester sequence.
Nursing Communication Contexts Cluster
The courses below are available only to Nursing majors who have advanced to levels one and two of the Nursing program curriculum. Students who complete all three courses, which are required as part of the Nursing curriculum, also receive credit for Communication Contexts. Therefore pre-nursing students do not need to select a course from this category while fulfilling most of their general education requirements as pre-requisites for the Nursing program.
NUR 2940 Health Promotion and Education
This course will introduce the principles of health teaching, integrating socio-cultural, physical, psychological, and developmental dimensions within a cultural and environmental context. Principles of adult learning as well as those used in teaching children and adolescents are
discussed. Students will apply health teaching and transcultural concepts and principles through the use of classroom presentations and discussions and a community service-learning project. The conceptual framework for NUR 2940, as for all nursing courses as HPU, is the Dungan Dynamic Integration Model. Nursing care of individuals and groups exist in the broad worldview of multicultural experiences in an every-expanding environment.
NUR 2960 Therapeutic Communication
The student is introduced to communication theories, models and basic skills as they apply to individuals, groups, and families in the health care setting. Several core communication issues including culture, gender, stress of illness, self-concept and self-awareness are examined in the context of the nurse-patient relationship. A variety of patient and staff situations are discussed. This course provides the theoretical basis for NUR2961 where skills are practiced.
NUR 2961 Applied Therapeutic Communication
This course is designed as the applied and experiential component for learning communication skills and is complementary to the theoretical and conceptual material presented in NUR 2960. The student is guided through the application of basic communication principles to specific nursing and health care related situations during a three hour on-campus lab and in selected hospital settings for those concurrently enrolled in NUR 2951. Dungan’s “Dynamic Integration Model” is the conceptual framework for all nursing courses at Hawaii Pacific University.
Student Learning Outcomes
All courses approved for Communication Skills B address two or three of the following:
Students will analyze the way people communicate within and across cultures, genders, generations, and organizations and develop skills in communicating across these domains. [CS 1]
Students will understand the effects of communication technology over time on individuals, society, government, and industry. [CS 2]
Students will compare, contrast, and interact within the various communication contexts, such as intrapersonal, interpersonal, small group, public, and mass communication. [CS 3]
Plus at least one of these two outcomes:
Students will demonstrate critical reasoning in organizing thoughts, feelings, concepts, and information for effective, clear, and accurate oral, written, non-verbal, visual, and electronic communication. Cover at least two of the kinds of
communication listed. [CS 4]
Students will demonstrate appropriate uses of verbal, visual, dramatic, numeric and graphic modes of presentation in various combinations. Cover at least two of the types of communication listed. [CS 6]
If only three outcomes are selected from those listed above, the fourth required outcome can be taken from any of the communication skills outcomes or from any of the other themes.
Another Communication Skills Outcome selected for some courses in this category Students will analyze the way we construct meaning and communicate it to others. [CS 7]
Communication Skills Outcomes addressed by each approved course:
Communication Skills Outcomes
1 3 4 6 7
COM 1000 Yes Yes Yes
COM 1200 Yes Yes Yes Yes
COM 2500 Yes Yes Yes Yes
ED 2300 Yes Yes Yes Yes
HIST 1717 Yes Yes Yes
Modern Languages Yes Yes Yes
NUR cluster Yes Yes Yes Yes
Outcomes from other themes used in this category.
VALUES AND CHOICES
Students will understand and analyze the range of consequences that follow from a choice, policy or course of action. [V&C 3]
WORLD CULTURES
Students will engage with and interpret the various manifestations of cultures including verbal and visual texts, institutions, behavior, and performance. [WC 5]
RESEARCH AND EPISTEMOLOGY
Students will utilize methods and technologies appropriate to the discipline to investigate research questions, generate predictions, test hypotheses and/or solve problems [R&E7]
V & C 3 World Cult. 5 Research &
Epistemology 7
COM
1000 Yes
ED 2300 Yes
HIST 1717 Yes Modern
