Implications for Research and Educational Practice

The three studies provide first implications for research and educational practice. As this dissertation applied an interdisciplinary approach, implications can be derived for both disciplines, rhetorical and empirical educational research. However, despite attempting to take into account the disciplines’ specific characteristics and research approaches, this dissertation cannot deepen each discipline to the same extent as would be possible with a non-interdisciplinary work. Thus, compromises had to be made. However, the non-interdisciplinary approach allows for conclusions and new insights to be made concerning the research object of presentation competence. The following section focuses first on research implications and then on implications for educational practice.

5.2.1. Implications for research

Alongside implications for i) rhetorical research and ii) empirical educational research, implications are discussed for iii) the interdisciplinary perspective. The three studies making up this dissertation are considered together in order to crystallize the main implications for each discipline.

Regarding i) rhetorical research, the findings of Study 1 imply that the presentation facets’ underlying rhetorical framework successfully links rhetorical theory with a contemporary speech format. The transfer of rhetorical theory to the presentation format via this rhetorical framework points to a systematical rhetorical approach for analyzing students’

presentation behavior. This dissertation supplements the classical rhetorical canon for speech preparation by including aspects specifically related to the presentation format, such as visual aids. Turning to Study 2, the finding that the personality dimension of Extraversion can be considered a determinant of presentation competence, can be related to the natura-ars dialectic in rhetorical research. This dialectic notes that, in addition to rhetorical theory, individual characteristics influence a speaker’s education. These characteristics, which are also labeled talent (Neumann, 2003), include voice, physical conditions, as well as cognitive factors such as memorization or the ability to make the right decisions within the presentation situation. The individual characteristic of Extraversion could contribute to more easily completing the presentation task, for example, by creating a feeling of pleasure when speaking in front of an audience. In summary, in addition to physical condition and cognitive factors, the personality trait of Extraversion could also be a supporting precondition for being a competent speaker.

Consequently, Study 2’s findings extend the rhetorical perspective on talent as a beneficial characteristic for a speaker.

With respect to ii) educational research, the findings of Study 1 imply that the TIP can be used as a tool for diagnosing students’ presentation competence, providing feedback and conducting effectiveness or efficacy studies. The results of Study 2 indicate that presentation competence is correlated with the personality trait of Extraversion; thus the correlation pattern for school achievements on oral tasks differs from existing correlation patterns for school achievement on written tasks when relating to personality traits (Furnham & Monsen, 2009).

This implies that the specific type of school task might play a role in relations with school achievement. Future studies should take the type of task into account and include the characteristics of different school tasks as an influencing variable. Moreover, the results of Study 3, the effectiveness study, imply that it is possible to change some facets of secondary school students’ presentation competence through a short intensive presentation training. As the students improved on some but not all facets of presentation competence, future research should focus on optimizing the training to obtain effects for all presentation facets. Afterwards, a scaling-up is necessary: for example, this training could be transferred to the school context and the effects evaluated.

In terms of iii) the interdisciplinary perspective, the focus is on how both disciplines could benefit one another, as they both examine the same research object, i.e., presentation competence. First, a strength of this dissertation is its combination of rhetorical and empirical educational research. This interdisciplinary approach allows for broader implications beyond those for the single disciplines. Applying both disciplines in research on presentation competence results in opening educational research discourse to rhetorical schemes as well as relating educational research to rhetorical discourse. For example, with respect to the presentation framework, rhetorical research benefits insofar as the presentation facets, which differentiate between presentation behaviors and are derived from rhetorical theory, could be tested empirically. The assumed presentation facets could be empirically verified by uncovering a corresponding factor structure. This dissertation could not verify all of the assumed presentation facets because not all items could be included due to low reliability. But these first examinations and results provide a basis for further studies. The other discipline, educational research, can use subject-specific knowledge from the rhetorical discipline to implement training concepts. Empirical educational research provides the framework that includes testing, planning studies and diagnosing individual skill levels in order to identify training needs. The core components, a combination of both disciplines, are a second topic of this dissertation. As

reported in Study 3, applying these core components in a presentation training led to a change in secondary school students’ presentation competence. Based on these results, specific elements of the training could be examined in more detail to identify core components with the greatest positive impact on presentation competence. In conclusion, this dissertation’s approaches and findings are beneficial for developing a rhetorical teaching methodology. This dissertation combines rhetorical and educational research by focusing on the following three questions: How is presentation competence defined and how can presentation competence be assessed? What factors influence presentation competence? How can presentation competence be fostered? The answers can contribute to deducing and developing an evidence-based rhetorical teaching methodology.

5.2.2. Implications for educational practice

Beside these implications for research, the three studies’ results also have implications for educational practice. These implications can be divided among different agents in the field of educational practice, i.e., students and teachers at the classroom level, the school level, and education authorities (Brüsemeister, 2007). They represent the micro and macro levels of educational practice.

Starting with the teacher and student level, the TIP, with its six facets of presentation competence (addressing the audience, structure, language use, body language & voice, visual aids, and content credibility), provides a differentiated view on presentation competence. The presentation facets can be used as a basis for differentiated feedback when attempting to improve students’ presentation competence. In this dissertation, the use of the presentation competence instrument was linked to an intensive rater training. In order to the TIP to provide differentiated feedback in schools, school teachers also need parallel training on how to correctly use the evaluation form. In addition, the findings that personality traits are correlated with presentation competence can increase teachers and students’ awareness of these specific relationship patterns. Different patterns of results were identified depending on the assessment perspective. Presentation competence measured via external ratings was associated with the personality trait of Extraversion. Students’ self-perceived presentation competence was correlated with Neuroticism. This might imply that students perceive their performance in a problematic way, and presumably need to learn to assess their presentation competence in a more realistic way. Instruction might be helpful for strengthening their self-perception.

However, future research will need to more closely examine differential promotion before more concrete instructional strategies can be deduced. Furthermore, the effectiveness study implied

that a short intensive training can improve some facets of presentation competence. This includes presentation skills related to addressing the audience, structure (concluding a presentation) and content credibility (creating clear questions). However, there might be a difference in how different presentation skills develop within these presentation facets. Some facets, such as language use or body language and voice, seem to require longer training or practice, with improvements only visible later. Conversely, some facets, such as addressing the audience, structure or content credibility, seem to exhibit change immediately after the training.

Students and teachers can use this implication in presentation trainings.

At the school level, only a few implications can be drawn, because the presentation training program did not take place in the school context. This training’s extracurricular context implies that presentation competence can be successfully promoted outside of the school and classroom context. Teachers who encourage students to participate in this extracurricular training program can contribute to fostering their students’ presentation competence. However, future studies need to examine whether students can transfer their improved presentation competence to the school and classroom context. Based on the results of this dissertation, future research should also examine how to transfer this short intensive presentation training program and the associated training effects into school. Transferring this training to the school context appears possible. Schools can initiate project days focused on fostering presentation competence through intensive presentation trainings.

At the macro level of educational administration, one might focus on teacher training.

In this dissertation, the rater training included familiarization with each item by studying the definitions, anchor examples and indicators in the manual. The main focus in the training was watching students’ presentation videos, conducting assessments, explaining the assessment and group discussions among raters. Test ratings and reflections on them were also part of the training. The training involved acquiring knowledge on giving a presentation competently and learning the indicators and anchor examples for each category according to the four-point Likert-type scale. In addition, the training participants made practice ratings and discussed them under the leadership of a presentation expert. The goal was to create a common understanding among the raters for each item. In Study 1, this rater training on the TIP was found to result in objective, reliable, and valid estimations of presentation competence. Using the TIP in combination with this rater training resulted in assessments that were independent of the rater (objectivity), stable over time (reliability), and measured what they were supposed to measure (validity). Study 1 showed that the training was successful for most items. The training process could also be transferred to teachers in school. Training teachers’ expertise in assessing

presentation competence can be considered as an option for ensuring the fair and valid assessment of secondary school students’ presentation competence. Thus, a teacher training should be developed to improve teachers’ assessment of students’ presentation competence to ensure accurate ratings.