The use of speech disfluency as an indicant of paradigm development in pharmacy's academic subdisciplines

BackgroundParadigm development among disciplines has implications for faculty productivity, quality of work life, turnover, organizational rewards, and scholarly progress. Although studied in basic fields, paradigm development has not been measured in professional programs, such as pharmacy.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to compare speech disfluency rates in lectures of entry-level pharmacy courses within 5 subdisciplines of pharmacy as a measure of paradigm development.MethodsDisfluency rates were observed in randomly selected courses in 4 schools of pharmacy. Disfluency rates among course faculty in personal interviews controlled for subjects' inherent disfluency rates. Lecturers completed a modified version of the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation survey and a self-rated anxiety measure. Correlates of disfluency patterns were determined using analysis of covariance procedures.ResultsThe overall mean disfluency rate in lectures was 2.11 disfluencies per minute. Average disfluency rates among the 5 subdisciplines ranged from 1.28 to 2.74. The subdiscipline under study, the lecturers' self-rated anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, or any alternative factors were not associated with disfluency rates in the classroom.ConclusionsAlthough study results corroborate previous evidence that pharmacy's academic subdisciplines exhibit similar paradigm development, the use of speech disfluency as a measure of paradigm development may have limited utility in the study of disciplinary progress within professional domains.