Communication in the classroom

Communication in the Classroom

Mudasiru Olalere YUSUF (PhD)Department of Educational

TechnologyUniversity of Ilorin

QuotesDeveloping excellent communication skills is

absolutely essential to effective leadership. The leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to

others. If a leader can't get a message across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having

a message doesn't even matterGilbert Amelio

If you improve a teacher's self-esteem, confidence, communication skills or stress levels, you improve that teacher's overall effectiveness

across the curriculumElaine MacDonald

Objectives

At the end of this lecture, you should be able to:• Define the term communication and its

importance in classroom instruction.• List and discuss the components / elements of

communication.• Distinguish among the five forms of

communication.• Apply the communication principles in

facilitating learners of different learning styles (Visual Learners, Auditory Learners, Reading/Writing Preference Learners and Kinesthetic Learners).

• Compare and contrast the three models (transmission, interaction, and transaction) of communication.

What is Communication? Communication is a process of interaction of ideas

between the communicator and the receiver to arrive at a common understanding for mutual benefit (Berlo, 1960),

A process of transmitting information and common understanding from one person to another (Keyton, 2011).

It is a process of generating meaning by sending and receiving verbal and non-verbal symbols and signs.

Communication is a two way interactive process of: Communicating TO others and learning how to interpret the information

received FROM others.

Forms of Communication There five forms of communication:

Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Group, Public and Mass CommunicationForms of Communication

Description Implications in the Classroom

Intrapersonal

Communication with oneself and occurs only inside our heads (internal reflective thinking). Triggered by internal or external stimulus

Teachers should provide enabling external stimuli for positive intrapersonal communication, because it can berate or encourage students to learn

Interpersonal

Communication between people whose lives mutually influence one another and typically occurs in dyads, which means in pairs.

Teachers should encourage positive use of interpersonal communication among learners. Students’ pairing for instruction is possible.

Forms of Communication (2)Forms of Communi

cation

Description Implications in the Classroom

Group Group communication occurs when three or more people communicate to achieve a shared goal.

Common communication form in the classroom. It should be student centered and focused on assisting all students to learn

Public Public communication is sender focused and typically occurs when one person conveys information to an audience.

Typical teacher centered classroom instruction. May be for concept definition. Sparsely relevant in the classroom.

Mass communication

Mass communication occurs when messages are sent to large audiences using print or electronic media (television, radio, podcasts websites, blogs, and social media).

They are becoming indispensable part of modern instructional setting. They can bring variety to the classroom instruction.

Elements of Communication

Communication has six major elements or components, and an intervening component: context, sender/encoder, message, medium, receiver/decoder, feedback. Noise (intervening element).

Elements of Communication (Context)

• Culture which relates to a setting which determines the way communication takes place

• External stimulus, what can motivate students to respond in oral or written form.

• Internal stimuli like opinion, attitude, likes, dislikes, emotions, experience, competence, and confidence which can influence communication.

Elements of Communication (1)Context• Culture which relates to a setting which determines

the way communication takes place• External stimulus, what can motivate students to

respond in oral or written form.• Internal stimuli like opinion, attitude, likes, dislikes,

emotions, experience, competence, and confidence which can influence communication.

Sender/EncoderThe person who sends message. In classroom oral communication, the encoder is teacher, and in written communication writer is the encoder. Teacher uses combination of words, gestures, symbols, graphs and pictures understandable by the receiver to convey his message.

Elements of Communication (2)MessageThe information shared between sender and receiver. For good communication, the central idea of the message must be clear. Thus, the teacher must decide what to communicate keeping in mind the context and how the receiver (students) will interpret the message.Medium / ChannelThe sensory route through which encoder will communicate his message to the decoder. The medium can be print, electronic, or sound. The choice of medium may be dependent on contextual factors, relationship between the sender and receiver, ability of sender and/or sender, and preference.

Elements of Communication (3)Receiver/DecoderThe person to whom the message is being sent. Receiver (student) may be a listener or a reader depending on the choice of medium by sender (teacher) to transmit the instructional contents. FeedbackThe response or reaction of the receiver to a message. Communication is effective only when it receives some feedback as it completes the loop of communication. NoiseAnything that can distort the message. These include physical discomfort, perceptions of the message, language barriers, interruptions, emotions, and attitudes.

Communication Process and Learners’ Learning Styles

Since communication is aimed at ensuring students’ learning then their learning preferences should inform classroom communication. Students’ preferred learning modes:• will impact on information that is accessed through

classroom communication as it assist in their levels of comprehension, motivation and meta-cognition.

• have significant influence on their behavior and learning.

• should be matched with appropriate learning strategies. The Neil Fleming’s VARK (visual, auditory,

reading/writing, and kinesthetic) had been used to classify students’ preferred learning modes .

Identifying your students based on VARK and aligning your communication will be beneficial students’ information processing.

Students’ Preferred Learning Modes

Barriers to Effective Classroom Communication

Lack of effective listening is one of the most important barriers.

Perception which refers different people receiving and hearing the same message but interpreting it differently.

Language can also be a barrier if the teacher and the students don't speak the same language.

Cultural differences can be a barrier if messages are delivered in a way that is unfamiliar to the student's culture.


Anxiety because if a student is anxious and unsure, he/she is less likely to speak up in class.

Medical/Physiological issues and disorders like stuttering, or more advanced medical disorder as cerebral palsy can also be a barrier to communication.

Poor channels can also be a barrier to communication.

Environmental distractions can also be a barrier to communication.


Jumbled messages (contradictory messages or mixing an intended message with unnecessary issues) can also be a barrier to communication.

Emotional states (depression, mood swings, anxiety, low self-esteem, effects of a traumatic event) can also be a barrier to communication.

Lack of credibility can also be a barrier to communication.

Lack of Common Experience between teacher and learners can also be a barrier to communication.

Communication Models Models of communication refers to the

conceptual model on basic conception of communication as the process of sending and receiving messages or transferring information from one part (sender) to another (receiver).

We will discuss three models of communication and their implications for classroom instruction. • Linear model • Interactive model • Transactional model

Communication Models (Linear/Psychological)

The linear model views communication as a one-way or linear process in which:

the speaker speaks and the listener listens. Example is the Laswell’s (1948) model was

based on the five questions which effectively describe how communication works:

Who (Says)? What ?

Through What

Channel ?To Whom ? With What

Effect ?

Figure 2: Linear Model of Communication

Communication Models (Interactive)

Linear model is flawed because it depicts communication as a one-way process where: speakers only speak and never listen. listeners listen and never speak or send

messages. Schramm (1955) developed an interactive model

that saw the receiver or listener providing feedback to the sender or speaker.

The speaker or sender of the message also listens to the feedback given by the receiver or listener.

Both the speaker and the listener take turns to speak and listen to each other.

Feedback is given either verbally or non-verbally, or in both ways.

The speaker and listener communicate better if they have common fields of experience which overlap

Communication Models (Interactive [2])

Figure 2: Common Fields of Experience in Interactive Model

DecoderSourceEncoder

DecoderSourceEncoder

Message

Feedback

Source’s Field of Experience Receiver's Field of Experience

Communication Models (Transactional)

The drawback in the interactive model is that it does not indicate that communicators can both send and receive messages simultaneously, and fails to show that communication is a dynamic process.

The transactional model (Wood, 2009) shows that the elements in communication are interdependent.

Each person in the communication act is both a speaker and a listener, and can be simultaneously sending and receiving messages.


Figure 3: Communication as Social System


Implications of the transactional model “Transactional” means that communication

is an ongoing and continuously changing process (Teachers, students, and environment are changing

Each element in transactional process, exists in relation to all the other elements (interdependence - no source without a receiver and no message without a source).

Each participant in the communication process reacts depending on factors such as their background, prior experiences, attitudes, cultural beliefs and self-esteem.

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The

superior teacher demonstrates. The great

teacher inspires

William Arthur Ward