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The Classroom as a Learning organization:
Focus on Feedback Revisited
Julia M. DiStefano, Ph.D.
New Hampshire College
2500 North River Road
Manchester, NH 03106
Tel.:(603) 627-1182
E-mail jmdis@mv.mv.com
Increasingly, post-secondary educators have recognized the value of, indeed, the need for
students to have "hands on" experience. At my institution I conceive the public speaking
classroom as a “learning laboratory" where we have an “exploratory attitude," that is, where
students discover their own individual strengths and discover, usually by trial and error, how
best to gain and maintain the interest of the class. The purpose of this paper is to show how I
have combined the conceptual model of the interaction between speaker and audience using a
system dynamics approach and recent literature on learning organizations to redesign my public
speaking courses.
Course objectives in the learning laboratory
Like the learning laboratory discussed by Bakken et al, we use "context setting,
conceptualization, experimentation, and reflection" (247) to encourage each student to: 1. know
how to control state fright; 2. know how to choose a topic and mode of presentation appropriate
to the audience; 3. practice the principles of effective planning and delivery of individual
extemporaneous speeches and collaborative participation in panel discussions.
Note: An extemporaneous speech, unlike an impromptu speech, which is delivered on the spur of
the moment, or a manuscript speech, which is read from note cards, is a prepared speech
requiring research, the use of visual aids, and is delivered in a conversational manner.
As a facilitator or "enabler" (rather than a ‘professor’ I encourage students to: measure their own
progress by analyzing and reflecting on (writing a written critique) of their speeches, all of which
are videotaped; evaluate the progress, strengths and weaknesses of classmates; be responsible
for time management so that each individual has enough time to present seven speeches, two of
which are part of a three member panel that explores in depth a controversial issue such as
violence in the media, or the danger of cults.
A conceptual model of public speaking based on system dynamics
Back in 1984 at the System Dynamics Conference in Oslo Norway, I argued that the interaction
between the speaker and his audience is a subject requiring a dynamic method of analysis,
namely systems dynamics. Working with Prof. Willard Fey, I sketched the feedback loops
comnecting the speaker's emotional energy— his mastery of stagefright and present of mind - to
his ability to perceive and respond to the audience's interest during the actual presentation.
After 16 years of teaching public speaking at an undergraduate business school, I have refined
the course, so that the public speaking class serves as a Learning Organization where students set
and define their own goals and measure their own progress by analyzing their videotaped
speeches (they are all videotaped) and the progress of their classmates.
As the speaker learns from his own experience, and from observing his classmates, what happens
between the speaker and the audience during the presentation, he learns better how to forecast
audience interest, and how to prepare the content and delivery of the presentation.
Collaboration with 2 or 3 other students is required for 2 of the 7 presentations required of each
student in a 16-week semester. For the collaborative presentations the group share a grade,
motivating them to help each other do their best work.
Students see notable improvements in the quality of their presentations after about 9 weeks, and
by the sixteenth week it is clear to everyone that the overall quality of their presentations is
vastly superior to those of the first weeks of the term.
Causal loop diagrams and focus on feedback
To be effective, the speaker must be able to observe his performance, compare his goals with his
results, and use the information to modify his performance in process, as well as to guide his
future speeches. Successful speakers are skillful in gauging the audience's interest and degree of
understanding of his message. They are also skillful in modifying the content and mode of
delivery of their speeches (as for example by eliminating some points or simplifying
explanations, or speaking louder or more slowly) in response to environmental conditions and to
the response of their audience.
My approach, using causal feedback loops, can be used to improve almost any informative
presentation; explicating new techniques or ideas of fellow professionals; explaining technical
problems or processes to clients; or presenting an organization's policy in order to win the
support of the community.
Description of diagram of control loops during presentation
The diagram, Fig. 1, is based on the idea that the key dynamic variable in a speech is the
speaker's total performance quality at each instant of the speech, the complex combination of
what is being presented (content quality) at that time, how it is being presented (eye contact,
posture, voice quality, inflection, visual aids, etc. called "presentation quality") and "life," (the
energy quality at that time. The variation of this total performance quality throughout the speech
produces the dynamic pattern.
The content quality, presentation quality and "life" are determined by three kinds of factors.
these are 1. the speaker's skills and experience (which are constant during the speech, but
develop from speech to speech; 2. preparations and plans for the speech, and 3. dynamic factors
that change during the speech and are related to the speaker’s emotions and conscious (rational)
control of content and presentation style. The speaker's emotions and conscious controls are
influenced by his perception of how well the speech is going based on his evaluation of his
performance quality and his perception of the audience's reaction. However, the ability to
perceive and to evaluate is influenced by the speaker's emotional state. These relationships
create the feedback loops which operate throughout the speech.
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The operation of the loops causes the variables (for ex., speaker's concentration on content, or
speaker's emotional energy) to change over time and create the patterns mentioned above. thus a
declining trend in performance could be caused by the emotional loops (positive loops which
tend to reinforce any trend once started), or by a plan that has used interesting material at the
beginning, but failed to carry the audience's interest through to the end of the speech.
Conclusion
The application of system dynamics to the interaction of the speaker and his audience has
resulted in a conceptual model that has helped me to redesign my public speaking course, and
overcome my frustration with the inadequacies of models— generally linear— that are found in
communication textbooks. the "textbook" for my course is the student's videotape of all
presentations, along with the comments of the instructor and classmates on each performance,
and the detailed, reflective essays the student writes on his speeches and those of his classmates
at mid-semester and as a final exam. A dozen or so public speaking textbook is are on reserve,
and must be consulted and referenced in the assigned reflective essays. Using system dynamics
as a lens to view the dynamics in the classroom has helped me find better ways to decrease
speakers' anxiety—a major issue- and made public speaking more fun to teach and a better
learning experience for may students.
References
Bakken, et al. (1994) "Experimentation in Learning Organizations" pp. 243-266 in Morecroft,
J.D. and J. Sterman (1994) Modeling for Learning Organizations. Productivity Press, Portland,
Ore.
DiStefano, J.M. (1996) "From Control to Chaos: A System Dynamics Model of Interpersonal
Communication" pp. 1-17 in System Dynamics: An International Journal of Policy Modeling,
V. viii, nos. 1 & 2.
