Mentoring at-risk middle school students to reduce communication apprehension

Abstract

Research has demonstrated the efficacy of mentoring at-risk students in a number of fields from physical education to math and science. While separate research has found that many at-risk students lack effective communication skills, little research has explored the potential of communication mentoring in improving at-risk students’ communication efficacy. In our study, we examined the effectiveness of communication majors in a senior capstone course mentoring at-risk middle school students. Mentors were assigned a protégé and were required to design a curriculum targeting specific communication apprehension concerns identified in each student and implement the curriculum over a 10-week period. Analysis of self-reported communication apprehension scores showed at-risk students prior to mentoring reported higher than average levels of communication apprehension. After mentoring, they reported statistically significantly lower levels of communication apprehension. The implications for mentoring, at-risk students, and improved middle school communication education are considered.

Keywords:

• Mentoring
• middle school students
• at-risk students
• communication apprehension
• communication competence

Notes

1. An IEP is not the sole determining factor for an at-risk student. There are many other variables to consider such as attendance and grades as was the case with this school district.

2. Additional examples, if desired or needed, can be obtained by contacting the lead author of this article.

3. Hedges’ g is preferred over Cohen’s d for t tests where standard deviations and sample size differ between the two groups because it weights the relative size of each sample.

4. Given the 1.5 difference in SD, Gates’ delta was calculated as well (delta = .72), but Cohen’s d as the more conservative estimate of effect size is reported here.

5. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.

6. www.corestandards.org/assests/CCSSI.ELAStandards.pdf.