This panel will discuss emerging findings from a US EPA-funded research project intended to improve risk communication for post-incident decontamination and clearance activities associated with intentional contamination of a water system. The session will center around Phase II of the study, which focuses on extending the Phase I case study findings that were presented at last year’s KWRRI Symposium, to identify ways in which disparate stakeholder groups in metropolitan areas differentially perceive risk and subsequent risk communication efforts

In contrast to traditional courses, in which students are accountable only to the instructor, effective implementation of any group-based instructional format, including team-based learning (TBL), requires that students be accountable to both the instructor and their peers. Unfortunately, some instructors resist using groups because of concerns about using peer evaluations or poorly designed group assignments and grading systems that in effect reward and encourage social loafing. Furthermore, their concerns seem as equally focused on unfairly raising the grades of poor students (who may be carried along by hard-working members) as they are about the potential of penalizing hard-working students (who may receive a lower course grade because they were randomly assigned to a poorly performing group). With TBL, however, these concerns are largely eliminated by using a comprehensive feedback and grading system that ensures individual student accountability to both the instructor and peers by using a grading system that has an individual performance component, a team performance component, and a peer evaluation component (Michaelsen, 1992; Michaelsen, Knight, and Fink, 2004; Chapter One, this volume). Individual student grade incentives for accountability in TBL courses are derived from four separate but interrelated sources: individual preparation (scores on the individual readiness assurance test); collective preparation (scores on the team readiness assurance test); how well knowledge is applied by individuals 69

This study explored the responses of receivers of risk messages that included all elements of the Internalization-Distribution-Explanation-Action (IDEA) learning cycle model to determine if culture, sex, and socioeconomic status had any impact on receptivity and behavioral intention. Using a pre-and post-measures experimental design, 746 participants from different geographic areas within the United States watched prepared news clips. Participants identified their learning styles, the perceived message effectiveness, and their behavioral intentions following their observation. Results suggest that messages addressing all elements of the IDEA model were perceived as more effective by participants. Ethnicity and sex of participants in some cases made a difference regarding perception of message effectiveness.

The purpose of this cross-sectional study is to examine how personality traits such as sensation-seeking and impulsive decision-making affect Taiwanese college students' intentions to seek online information about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Five hundred thirty-five (n = 535) junior and senior college students in Taiwan were recruited and completed selfreport questionnaires. This study found high sensation-seekers were more likely to seek information about STDs and HIV/AIDS on the Internet than low sensation-seekers. Impulsive decision-makers were less likely than rational decision-makers to seek information about STDs and HIV/AIDS on the Internet. These findings suggest that personality needs to be considered as an exploratory factor which potentially influences intentions to seek STD and HIV/AIDS information on the Internet among Taiwanese college students.

The effects of physical environment on the performance of student teams were evaluated in a timed case study. Six teams worked on an intensive three-hour problem-solving event as part of their term project. Successful completion of the project depended on using engineering skills to solve an open-ended technical problem and produce a one-page memo defining the solution. The skills needed for this exercise included searching electronic databases for relevant information, analyzing journal publications, developing a kinetic model, applying the model to the problem, making team decisions, and communicating the results in a written product. Three teams performed the exercise in a technology-training classroom (treatment group), newly constructed and flexibly furnished to accommodate interaction and electronic communication. The remaining three teams (control group) were to find any available space within the Engineering complex. The technology classroom featured flexible, team-friendly furnishing, and laptop computers with wireless Ethernet connections, giving the students access to Internet database resources and nearby printers. None of the teams selecting their own space chose to work in a traditional classroom. Rather, they all migrated to space that could be used for group discussion, and left these areas to get access to other resources. All groups performed well as teams, probably due to the team training that had been provided to the class prior to the exercise. The three treatment teams in the technology classroom scored significantly better on technical content and communicating their work product in memo form than the control group.

The effects of physical environment on the performance of student teams were evaluated in a timed case study. Six teams worked on an intensive three-hour problem-solving event as part of their term project. Successful completion of the project depended on using engineering skills to solve an open-ended technical problem and produce a one-page memo defining the solution. The skills needed for this exercise included searching electronic databases for relevant information, analyzing journal publications, developing a kinetic model, applying the model to the problem, making team decisions, and communicating the results in a written product. Three teams performed the exercise in a technology-training classroom (treatment group), newly constructed and flexibly furnished to accommodate interaction and electronic communication. The remaining three teams (control group) were to find any available space within the Engineering complex. The technology classroom featured flexible, team-friendly furnishing, and laptop computers with wireless Ethernet connections, giving the students access to Internet database resources and nearby printers. None of the teams selecting their own space chose to work in a traditional classroom. Rather, they all migrated to space that could be used for group discussion, and left these areas to get access to other resources. All groups performed well as teams, probably due to the team training that had been provided to the class prior to the exercise. The three treatment teams in the technology classroom scored significantly better on technical content and communicating their work product in memo form than the control group.

Over 5,000 adolescents enrolled in required rural high school health courses reported their perceptions of mastery and extrinsic goal structures in their health classrooms. Data were collected from all students at three time points (prior to HIV/pregnancy instruction, three months after instruction, and one year after instruction). Results indicated that classroom goal structures were related to both proximal and distal knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and efficacy beliefs. Results in particular indicate that the perception of a mastery goal structure in health education classrooms fosters knowledge, improved attitudes, enhanced efficacy beliefs, and lower intentions to have sexual intercourse. School health classrooms represent one of the most potent venues for providing HIV/ pregnancy prevention information to adolescent populations. Health education, which is a required course for most high school students in the United States (Education Commission of the States, 2006), offers teachers the opportunity to present effective curricula to adolescents, in order to prevent engagement in risky behaviors. Although research clearly indicates that some prevention-based curricula are more effective than others (Kirby, 2001, 2007, 2009; Kirby & Laris, 2009), most research on classroombased interventions aimed at HIV/AIDS prevention has focused on the development and evaluation of effective curricula, rather than the relations of specific instructional practices

This study employs instructional communication and crisis communication theoretical frameworks to experimentally examine messages tailored to learning style preferences to determine their effect on receivers' perceived efficacy to take self-protective measures during a crisis event. In the first phase of the study, participants (N = 254) viewed manipulated instructional media messages in the form of simulated news reports that reflected one of four learning styles. Results revealed no significant differences in perceived self-efficacy based on receiver learning style preference or message manipulation tailored to specific learning styles, but there was an interaction effect. In the second phase, participants (N = 123) completed pre-test and post-test measures of self-efficacy and watched a message that either matched or mismatched their learning style preference. Overall, participant self-efficacy significantly increased at post-test. However, none of the tailored messages significantly increased post-test self-efficacy over the others. The results extend both instructional communication and crisis management research, and provide avenues for future research utilizing instructional theories and frameworks and message tailoring to influence crisis management, instructional message design and self-protection efficacy.

Drawing on past pedagogical and scholarly lines of inquiry, this article advances-in a dialogic form-several questions to be considered for future research and practice in areas of communication, teaching, and learning. The dialogic form of this article offers a meta-message inviting colleagues to consider creative approaches to inquiry and collaboration in the 21 st century. The ideas and questions presented in this essay serve to push the field beyond disciplinary silos, advance research and pedagogy about teaching and learning, and offer thought-provoking insight into what scholars and practitioners who explore communication, teaching and learning can contribute to those inside and outside of our discipline.

This article explores the nature of instructional communication in responding to crisis situations. Through the lens of chaos theory, the relevance of instructional messages in restoring order is established. This perspective is further advanced through an explanation of how various learning styles impact the receptivity of various instructional messages during the acute phase of crises. We then summarize an exploratory study focusing on the relationship between learning styles and the demands of instructional messages in crisis situations. We conclude the article with a series of conclusions and implications.

Communicating to publics at risk can be challenging for spokespersons during crises. Knowing what content to include in such messages can be instrumental in achieving effective behavioural results among disparate publics and may differ across cultures.