>Don Kleist wrote:
>>>>>... Does forcing students to prepare
>and present material to a class teach
>them how to make effective presentations?...<<
>
>Bob Gately wrote:
>>>Probably not, but it may be the first exposure for many students to
>presenting in front of a hostile crowd.
>
>Charlie Wankel wrote:
>My experience has been that student groups are not hostile toward other
>students when they are presenting. Indeed, finding warm and interested
>receptivity on the part of their peers, they become more relaxed and
>willing to present and hopefully readier in work contexts too.
>
Making presentations without any instruction on how to do it well and how
to handle speech anxiety may just ingrain some bad habits and increase
the students' anxiety. There is a lot of research on this in the
Communication
field (e.g. McCroskey's Communication Apprehension). At Miami we do teach
a course on effective presentations (and leading group discussions, active
listening, interpersonal skills). The visible result with these students
is, I think,
amazing. At a minimum, we should know how to give appropriate feedback if
we require and grade presentations, so that people learn from the experience.
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Dr. Bill Snavely
Miami University Department of Management
Richard T. Farmer School of Business
E-MAIL:
snavelwb@muohio.edu
WEB: "http://www.muohio.edu/~snavelwb/"
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