A View of Oral Communication Activities in Food Science From the Perspective of a Communication Researcher

Abstract

Food science researchers have pronounced the Institute of Food Technologists Success Skills to be the most important competency mastered by graduates entering the work force. Much of the content and outcomes of the Success Skills pertains to oral communication skills of public speaking and interpersonal and group communication. This qualitative study reports the results of an examination of oral communication activities in the classes of 9 faculty in the food science program at Iowa State Univ. The findings revealed communication activities in the classes that support the Success Skills oral communication mandates; however, the food science faculty did not explicitly teach these skills. Faculty assumed the students would acquire proficiency in oral communication through participation in disciplinary activities that required them to practice the skills. A situated communication framework cautions communication researchers to honor the oral communication traditions in other disciplines. Still, the practice of preparing students to communicate in professional contexts without formal instruction raises 2 questions from the perspective of a communication researcher: first, are students aware of the communication skills they applied in classroom activities? Second, are students able to transfer communication skills to other classes and, more importantly to professional practice, when they graduate, as a result of this approach? The discussion suggests exercises that direct students’ attention to the specific skill sets inherent in the oral communication activities in the Success Skills while enabling faculty to maintain the communication traditions of food science as they prepare students for professional practice.

The Risk Takers: The Support Faculty Participants in Integration Initiatives Say They Really Need

“…The present investigation was conducted in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at a Midwestern research university. The study is part of a larger study in which I examined the connection of oral communication traditions and the food science discipline (for other results of the study, see Vrchota, 2011;2015a;2015b).…”

“…The experiences of four decades have resulted in a tradition in the communication discipline that guides in integration efforts with other disciplines (see, for example, Cronin & Grice, 1993;Cronin, Grice, & Palmerton, 2000;Dannels, 2001: Dannels & Housley Gaffney, 2009Morreale, Shockley-Zalabak & Whitney, 1993;Steinfatt, 1986;Strohmeier, Novak, Stratton, & Leipzig, 1992;and Weiss, 1990). To date, studies of communication integrations are available for the disciplines of engineering (Dannels, 2002(Dannels, , 2003Dannels, Anson, Bullard, & Peretti, 2003;Darling, 2005;Darling & Dannels, 2003), design (Dannels, 2005;Dannels, Gaffney, & Martin, 2008;Dannels & Norris Martin, 2008;Housley Gaffney, 2015;Morton, 2006;Morton & O'Brien, 2005), public education (Smith, 2005), dietetics (Vrchota, 2011) and food science (Reitmeier & Vrchota, 2009;Vrchota, 2015a;Vrchota, 2015b).…”

Presenting Food Science Effectively

“…As an example, 9 food science faculty members at Iowa State Univ. developed curricula that involved communication activities to support the IFT communication success skill (Vrchota ). A qualitative survey of the oral communication activities in the classes of the 9 faculty members revealed that the students received no explicit teaching regarding oral communication in such classes and that the faculty members assumed that the desired proficiencies in oral communications would be attained through student participation in oral communication class activities (Vrchota ).…”

“…It is my opinion that such best practices are portable to other groups of learners, including undergraduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty members, and food science professionals in industrial, consulting, and government settings. Incorporation of these best practices in the oral communication training of undergraduate food science students can alleviate the disconnect identified by Vrchota () where students were required to frequently engage in oral communication classroom activities but did not receive formal oral communication training.…”