Week 12 Communication and Questioning

Communication and Questioning 17/12/2013

This weeks lesson can viewed Here

The communication map

Effective communication is, without doubt, the most fundamental skill that any teacher needs to master. Whilst we need to be knowledgeable in our specialist area, we must also be able to convey that knowledge in a manner that learners will understand. The understanding and application of key theories of communication are a key part of development as a teacher.

Communication is not one-way. Effective communication needs at least two active participants. This can be represented by a model of communication, for example, that developed by Shannon and Weaver:

This model, while initially applied to technical communication, was also applied to human communication. At it's simplest, this model can be considered to have two parts, as source and a receiver. Therefore a conversation initiated by you the teacher to a learner would have you as the source and the learner as the receiver.

Shannon and Weaver also recognise that interference, or noise can hinder communication. That might be literal as in a construction work, road works, a telephone ringing, it doesn't necessarily have to be. Noise can take a wide range of forms including visual distractions, disabilities or learning difficulties, language or jargon.

Barriers to communication take two forms. Extrinsic: external influences, which includes noise, language and the environment in general. Intrinsic: barriers are set up within the receiver and include attitudes based upon past experience, feeling, emotions and internal thought processes relating to both the communicator and the message content.

Effective communication results when a student's response corresponds with the teacher's intentions and vice versa. Communication failure results when a teacher's intention and a student's response are incompatible. Information is not merely transmitted and received; it is also interpreted. The message is frequently distorted as it passes through barriers to communication and interpretation of content will be affected by previous experience or personal values.

Assessment of Learning through Questions

In small groups we discussed questioning methods and marked down the + or - of each questioning strategy:

This was followed by an open discussion and our tutor Richard carefully made use of the different strategies in questioning the group.

We also discussed again the value of resources in communication and then used a practical challenge to demonstrate communication difficulty. The communication challenge we used was to describe how to make a Origami Jumping Frog to a fellow student. We were made in to paired couples, armed with a instruction sheet (to be used by the instructor) and A4 paper for the student building the frog. The same process was followed also with reversed roles. If you look at the results and compare it with the Communication Cycle image above. In discussion, after the challenge, we were able to determine that the communication cycle could break down at every element of the cycle. What was the point....
Well simply to demonstrate the importance of building lesson plans that strengthen the bonds of communication and effectively bridge all the gaps in the communication cycle and that we may be able to incorporate resources (particularly ITC).





Lynn Machin. (2013). Communication. In: L. Machin, D.Hindmarch, S. Murray, T. Richardson A Complete Guide to the Level 4 Certificate in Education and Training. Nothwich: Critical Publishing. 81-95.