Teaching and Directing Forensics.

• Author: Madsen, Arnie

Teaching and Directing Forensics tries to fill a void in the current literature on competitive forensics: the practice of how to administer a forensic program and become a competent teacher and critic of competitive forensics. To further those outcomes is obviously desirable, and thus this book deserves recognition. This review will first briefly outline the major sections of the book. Second it will discuss some of the strengths of the Bartanen work. The third part of this review will provide a discussion of several weaknesses of this book.

The book has nine chapters, several followed by appendices providing supporting materials such as ethical codes and principles of tournament administration. The first chapter provides a basic overview of competitive forensic activities. It defines forensics, discusses some of the educational benefits of forensic participation, and offers a brief history of forensic activities.

The next three chapters comprise Part I of the book, "Forensics from a Systems Perspective." Chapter Two provides a brief introduction to systems theory and then locates competitive forensics, both at the high school and college level, within an overall system. Chapter Three focuses on forensic tournaments, suggesting that the tournament is one subsystem of the forensic activity. Chapter Four examines the individual forensics program, again a specific subsystem of the overall activity.

The final five chapters make up Part II of the book, "Forensics as Teaching and Learning." Chapter Five focuses on teaching individual events, while Chapter Six examines teaching debate. Chapter Seven provides a discussion of judging forensic contests. Chapter Eight discusses learning resources for forensics, including books, journal articles, and other materials. It includes a select bibliography on forensics. The final chapter discusses ethical issues of forensic activities.

One of the strengths of this book is its attempt to locate forensic activities within the broader discipline of communication. Forensics is not merely an extra-curricular activity that provides students with an outlet for their competitive urges. Instead, Bartanen suggests strong pedagogical justification for continuation of competitive forensics as a co-curricular extension of a student's classroom-based education. Indeed, throughout the book, Bartanen emphasizes forensics as a strong method for providing rhetorical training for students.

Second, Bartanen provides a...