Joan Gorham

Professor
Ed.D., Northern Illinois University
Specializations: Media, Nonverbal, Cross Cultural, Academic Advising

Dean's Office, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

201 Woodburn Hall –P.O. Box 6286  

West Virginia University

Morgantown, WV  26506-6286   
Joan.Gorham@mail.wvu.edu

Teaching

During the summer I teach primarily in our off-campus Instructional Communication MA program. The course I teach most frequently in this program provides a media literacy perspective for classroom teachers. I am also assigned as needed to the program's Communication in the Classroom, Nonverbal Communication in the Classroom, and Advanced Study in Instructional Communication courses.

I love the diversity across these classes! It would be hard for me to think of a more interesting combination of topics.

My primary research area has been communication in the instructional context, particularly that dealing with teacher immediacy. Over the past dozen years, those of us who share an interest in this area have generated an extensive line of research that has both identified a set of low-inference immediacy behaviors and supported a relationship between teachers' use of those behaviors and learning outcomes. We've looked specifically at individual components of immediacy, found that teachers are able to effectively monitor their use of immediacy behaviors, and investigated theoretical explanations for the immediacy-learning relationship. Diane Christophel and I are presently in the midst of a series of studies relating immediacy to student- and teacher-perceived sources of motivation and demotivation. I am also currently involved (with Tracy Morris and Stan Cohen, of the WVU Psychology Department) in research focusing on instructor attire and immediacy.

I have a scholarly interest in mass media, though I publish in this arena more as a teacher than a theory-builder. I recently completed my third edition as editor of the Mass Media collection of readings in Brown and Benchmark's Annual Editions series and take an occasional turn at media content analysis research.

I have a particular appreciation for the hands-on, grounded theory quality of content analysis. My immediacy research has frequently combined qualitative and quantitative approaches, as has the applied research I have done in the interest of addressing WVU's assessment and accountability mandates. I have to admit it's the search for patterns in responses to the open-ended questions that often intrigues me first.

That's the short version. If you want specifics, check my Vita.