PLACE IN THE CURRICULUM:

ComS 221 is the theoretical complement to ComS 222 Instructional Communication Practicum. Although ComS 222
features practice, it is related to relevant theory and conversely, ComS 221, while featuring theory, it is always
concerned with the connection of theory to practice.

This course will be centered around two major questions and relevant subordinate questions:

1) What are the boundaries of the study of instructional communication? How are those boundaries marked?
How do the present boundaries shape our knowledge about communicating and learning?

2) What is the nature of our present knowledge of instructional communication?What do we study? How do
we study it? What do we know about the relationship between communicating and learning?

As you can see, the course is essentially a course in epistemology; specifically, our knowledge of instructional
communication. We will assume that we do know some things and we don't know other things about how people
learn when they communicate with other people. We will also assume that what we study, how we study it, and
how we talk about the results are processes that are themselves problematic. That is, we will not sit down with a
preset list of readings, that having read them, we will act as if we know what is to be known about instructional
communication. Everything we do in the course will be problematic-we need to be aware that all of our interactions
about instruction merit reflection.