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U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
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Volume X, Number 1 |
September
2004 |
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U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
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Volume X, Number 1 |
September
2004 |
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A Technical Speaking Course in Mathematics
With their 2004 ACIE grant, Stephen Curran, John Thompson and Michael Ferencak, Mathematics, and Susan Wieczorek, Communication, are collaborating to develop an innovative course for upper-level mathematics majors at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. After two years of planning, they have joined forces to address the campus’s General Education objectives and general communication requirements while simultaneously offering upper-level mathematics students and others an advanced-level math course with a focus on speaking in mathematics. Their project, Development and Implementation of a Technical Speaking Course in Mathematics, will give students an opportunity to cultivate technical, discipline-specific, verbal communication skills and experiences needed to be successful in their chosen disciplines. They will develop skills in assessing an audience’s technical sophistication and adapting their own communications to accommodate the audience. Mathematics will become a familiar “vehicle” for development of general and technical communication competencies. The project team has been identifying the factors that delineate effective speaking skills within a technical discipline and general speaking skills typically addressed in undergraduate speech courses. Surprisingly, they have discovered a conspicuous absence of research on speaking competencies within academic disciplines in contrast to the plethora of literature on writing across the curriculum. This project offers several advantages over general public speaking formats. First, the hybrid nature of the course will accommodate requirements in communication, General Education, and mathematics without appropriating instructional time from core mathematics courses. Students will be researching and speaking on familiar, discipline-specific topics, in contrast to the less discipline-specific topics characterizing general public speaking courses. Students will acquire presentation skills that reflect their mathematical expertise as well as skills in adapting their communication to accommodate a non-mathematical audience. Wieczorek, the team’s communication expert, reports that this interdepartmental partnership has taught her as much as she has contributed to it. Consequently, the process has enabled her to superimpose general public speaking goals over the technical, discipline-specific goals of the team. This unique course is expected to be offered for the first time by spring 2005 and will be team taught by both mathematics and communication faculty then and during all subsequent terms. It will impact 10 to 15 students a term, including computer science, engineering, and upper-level mathematics students. An independent committee of faculty from the communication and mathematics departments will evaluate the course from classroom observations, videotaped student performances, review of course content and student interviews.
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