Dr. Jennifer Waldeck, associate professor of communication studies, recently participated in the Eastern Communication Association (ECA) conference in Philadelphia, PA.  The theme was “Deliberation.”  At the conference, Dr. Waldeck presented her most recent scholarship on the role of communication in learning across the lifespan, discussed her forthcoming book “Consulting That Matters: A Handbook for Scholars and Practitioners,” and presided over the Instructional Communication Interest Group’s business meeting.

Additionally, Dr. Waldeck was an invited participant in a roundtable discussion entitled “Deliberating the Future of Instructional Communication Research.”  Along with four other participants, she discussed the past and present research and theoretical trends on the role of communication in teaching and learning.  In considering the future, Dr. Waldeck argued that researchers interested in communication and instruction need to (1) think “bigger,” and ground their work more solidly in serious theoretical frameworks (moving away from variable analytic research); and (2) expand their thinking, theorizing, and empirical research beyond teaching and learning in K-12 and college classrooms to the other opportunities for learning and development that humans experience across the lifespan.  Specifically, she discussed learning and development in the workplace, in organizational and community life, and relative to health literacy and aging.

Dr. Waldeck is the Instructional Communication Interest Group program planner for the 2016 ECA conference in Baltimore, MD.