This article provides an overview of the evolution of experiential instruction theory and practice from its popular emergence in the late 1960s through the present period. Simulations, games, and other experience-based instructional methods have had a substantial impact on teaching concepts and applications during this period. They have also helped to address many of the limitations of traditional instructional methods, seven of which are discussed in the article. In addition to influencing classroom instruction, experiential methods have come to provide a pervasive and largely taken-for-granted foundation for a wide range of endeavors across many fields. Still, many of the limitations of the classic paradigm continue as vital and largely unresolved challenges today, and there remains much important work to be done to translate insights about experience, teaching, and learning into common practice.

No abstract

One of the recurrent problems associated with interpersonal, group, organizational, and intercultural training in communication is the as sessment of outcomes. An approach is suggested for the evaluation of training and selection of programs utilizing behavioral assessment of participants' communication competence. The method involves the sys tematic collection and analysis of behavioral observation data along one or several predetermined dimensions by one or more observers. Prelimi nary use of pilot instruments indicates that the methodology provides a relatively efficient technique for generating reliable assessments of interactive competence in a variety of social settings. A range of uses of behavioral assessment techniques in communication training are dis cussed, and an application in intercultural adaptation training and selection is explored in some detail.

This article considers one of the most fundamental concerns of health communication scholars, educators, and professionals--the relationship between communication theory and health communication practice. Assertions about the important role of communication in health care--as both problem and potential solution--have become increasingly common, as have discussions of theoretical advances in communication and health communication. That said, the fundamental challenge of improving provider-patient communication, and health communication outcomes more generally, persists--and, indeed, appears to be resistant to change. Inadequacies in the articulation and translation of communication theory for health care practice represent a substantial part of the problem. Scholars of communication embrace the complexity and nuanced nature of the process. However, when communication concepts are appropriated within health care discourse and practice, the complexity and nuance are often glossed over, favoring instead simpler, information-exchange perspectives. The changing health care and wellness landscape, with its growing range of health information services, sources, and settings, is unlikely to alleviate the consequences of this translation problem; rather, it threatens to exacerbate it. This article examines these issues, provides illustrations of situations that are emblematic of the translational gap, and highlights concepts that may help to enrich the contribution of communication theory in health care, health education, and professional practice.

No abstract