Bridging the communication gap: Integrating communication skills with subject matter

Effective communication is an important skill that all agronomists need. Techniques to enhance communication skills can be incorporated into an agronomic curriculum via assignments that require student utilization of these skills in ways that lead to a better understanding of agronomic subject matter. Three such techniques for classroom use include critiques of refereed journal articles, oral summaries of previous lectures, and interpretations of analytical problems. These techniques were utilized in an upper-level crop physiology course and were evaluated by students who enrolled in the course from spring 1983 through spring 1987. Responses were obtained from 31070 of the 118 students who enrolled prior to spring 1987 (previous students) and from 82070 of the 17 students enrolled during spring 1987 (current students). A greater percentage of previous than current students perceived that they had benefited from the speaking and writing assignments, and three-fourths of all previous students wished their college coursework had included more opportunities for public speaking. In all instances, previous-student perceptions were more positive after than during the course. Additional Index Words: Critiques, Curriculum, Speaking skills, Summaries, Writing skills. N ARTICLES (3, 5, 9) extol the importance effective verbal and written communication skills. Agronomy teachers and other science teachers are urged to incorporate communication skills into their curriculum (1, 2, 4, 6, 8). This is difficult to do with large classes since their size presents grading-time restraints that often impair the teacher’s capacity to provide students with experience in writing and speaking. A positive aspect of the decreasing enrollment in agricultural colleges is that class size has become small enough for teachers to provide students with an opportunity to practice writing and speaking. Class size decreased in an upper-level crop physiology course (CSS 380) required for crop and soil sciences majors at Michigan State University (MSU), thus providing an opportunity for the incorporation of three assignments that were designed to enhance speaking and writing skills: (i) written critiques of refereed journal articles, (ii) written interpretation of scientific data, and (iii) oral summary of a previous class lecture. The preceding Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, 160 PSS, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1114. Received 8 Sept. 1986. *Corresponding author. Published in J. Agron. Educ. 17:13-17 (1988). assignments evolved over time to address a perceived need. Initially, no thought was given to publishing the results. Consequently, no quantitative assessment of student response was devised until the summer of 1986, although student contact provided some feedback. For example, in 1983 students disliked the idea of the critique and were very forthright about expressing their thoughts. The overwhelming response was exactly the opposite in 1984; students indicated that the requiement introduced them to refereed journals, aiad many indicated that they had read more than the two articles they critiqued. The objectives of this study were to evaluate student perception and enjoyment of the three assignments through their responses to a detailed questionnaire. This article details the assignments and their assessment by