COMMUNICATION IS KEY

Communication is Key in Education

Peter Dutscheck
Park University/EN106

Abstract

COMMUNICATION IS KEY

In the world today everyone is trying to figure out what the key is to improving their educational
system for their school. The answer is simple, COMMUNICATION! Communication is the key
to improving you educational system and making sure that your student learn as much as they
can before they have to take their knowledge into the real world. A lot high schools and colleges
and trying to do many unnecessary things to improve their educational system. The need to stop
and go back to the fundamentals of learning and that is communication. Today colleges and high
schools are using the banking system which causes there to be little communication between the
teacher and the student. Students grades begin to suffer because of this. When teachers start
taking time to learn who their students are and the best way for their students to learn, then we
will start seeing an increase in academic reports. The way to do that is through communication.
Keywords: Communication, Banking

In todays world image is everything. Who has the best house? Who has the best car?
High schools and colleges even look at each other to see who has the best academic report.
Today every high school and college are asking themselves, How can we improve our education

COMMUNICATION IS KEY

system at our facility? They are trying to find new ways to improve their educational system in
their school so students can benefit more from their school. Some hire very creditable professors,
other lower the standards thinking that easier standards will help get through to their students,
and others improve their facilities by adding things like world class facilities, or college events.
The biggest thing that high schools and colleges need to focus on is communication between the
teachers and the students. Communication is the key to improving our education system.
In todays education system a lot of teachers and students have lost the talent of
communicating with each other. Communication is the sending of information from one person
to another. Communication can be verbal, for example, one person talking to another, or it can be
non-verbal, for example, a scowl on a person's face that will probably let other people know he is
angry. Communication can be positive or negative, effective or ineffective (Long, N. & Zelton,
K., 2014). In todays education system communication is key!
Today in High school and parts of college, many teachers use the Banking Concept of
education. As Paulo Freire states in his book, This is the "banking" concept of education, in
which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and
storing the deposits (Freire, 1993). It is because of this system that today teachers and students
lack the ability to communicate with each other. Students and Teachers are stuck in a trend that
the teacher spits out information and the student memorizing it with no thought about what was
just discussed. This is what Paulo Freire calls, Narration and he says, Education is suffering
from Narration sickness Freire (1993).
The banking concept is used many times in school because thats how many families
communicate at home. Families do not sit down and talk at the table for dinner or have family
time in the living room playing a game. The only time that many families communicate in

COMMUNICATION IS KEY

todays society is when the parent is telling the kid to do something or to be somewhere. There is
no understanding from the children on why they have to do something. Let take a father and his
son building a barn for example. When they are building the barn and the father tells the son to
cut a twenty foot piece of electrical wire and to run it through the side wall. There is no
understanding on why the father wanted that done or why this would benefit in building the barn
and the child does not take the initiative to ask. If the father would take the time to explain to his
son why he wanted that wire cut at that length and had the boy think about what it was for than
they would not have more communication problems during the build of the rest of the barn or in
their future relationship. This parenting flowing into teaching at school because school
classrooms are made up of parents and children from different family. So when the teacher starts
teaching in the classroom the students will not ask questions because this is the type of learning
they are used to at home even thou it is not the best way to learn.
Since there is barely any communication between the teacher and the student. The teacher
will not know if the student understands the material that is being taught because the teacher
does not fully understand the student. If the student is having issues in class the teacher will just
think that it is because the student is not paying attention. The reason why the Teacher thinks that
is because the teacher thinks that the way that he is teaching his class is the best way for students
to learn, but that may not be the case. As Maeetta Johnson states in Communication in the
classroom, Teachers will find that communicating effectively begins with the environment.
Good teachers not only set the stage, but good teachers are good listeners. They listen to verbal
and non-verbal messages. They know when a student desires to be heard. They know when and
what signals to intercept; boredom, interest, agreement, and disagreement Johnson (1999). If the
teacher does not take the time to learn his or her students, and create a good learning

COMMUNICATION IS KEY

environment. There will be no chance for communication and educational growth. Due to this
lack of communication you start to see a drop in academic reports.
When colleges began seeing declines in grades, they started looking at the standards and
trying to find ways on how to change them so that students grades would begin to reflect better
on the college. This is the reason why colleges are dropping their standard because when
students end up taking classes that they have to do live discussion in class or have to put their
own opinion in a paper, they have trouble because they do not know how to properly
communicate with other people and the teacher in an ethical classroom discussion. Students have
been taught all through high school and part of college to just listen, write down the information
and not question anything.
In Edmundson paper he talks about a point in class where he corrected a student during
his lecture in front of the entire class. Later on, that same day the student went to Mr.
Edmundson office and informed him how humiliated he was to be called out and corrected in
from of everyone in the class. Mr. Edmundson then stated, Should I let a major factual error go
by so as to save the discomfort? The student-a good, smart, and earnest student-said that was a
tough question. Hed need to think about it (Edmundson, 1997). This incident shows the
extreme lack of communication skills by the student. This is because students go years without
the need of communication in class. If the student had the proper communication skills, he would
have been able to absorb the correction in front of the entire class without being humiliated
because he would understand that sometimes during class discussions you are wrong and that is
part of having classroom discussions. Matters like this should have to be addressed at a younger
age. If a student weas taught how to give their opinion in a classroom conversation and be
corrected, if they are wrong, without feeling humiliated in their freshman year of high school.

COMMUNICATION IS KEY

Then when they are in college having a classroom discussion and they get corrected. They will
not feel humiliated and be scared to answer another questions. Instead they would think about
where the teacher came up with his answer, if he agrees with it or not, and if there is anything
else he can add to the discussion by agreeing with the teacher or bringing up more evidence to
challenge the teacher and back up his answer.
When teachers are able to communicate with their students, and not have any problems,
that where true educational growth happen. Thomas Angelo and K Cross, in Classroom
Assessment Techniques, talk about how teachers should have students assessment themselves
about what they think about the subject and how they like to learn. After doing this teachers can
find the appropriate way to instruct the classroom to create the best environment for
communication and educational growth (Angelo and Cross 1993). I am not saying that the
student or teacher is not going to get mad because sometimes an educational debate can be about
something that they are very passionate about. When a teacher can instruct a subject, have a
student stand up in class and debate the conversation, which than lead to more students putting in
their opinion, and then show the students what knowledge they are missing and have all the
students understand why the teacher is right. Then they have true communication in the
classroom and there will be a tremendous amount of educational growth in the classroom.
Paul Freire states, Yet only through communication can human life hold meaning. The
teachers thinking is authenticated only by the authenticity of the students thinking. The teacher
cannot think for his students, nor can he impose his thought on them. Authentic thinking,
thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in
communication (Paulo Freire, 1970). If teachers truly want to help their student and improve
their grades they only have to bring life into their teaching and into their classroom and the only

COMMUNICATION IS KEY
way that they can do that is by bring communication between them and their students into the
everyday classroom.

COMMUNICATION IS KEY
REFERENCES
Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques.
Edmundson, M. (1997). On the uses of a liberal education. Harpers Magazine, 295, 39-49.
Freire, P. (1970). The banking concept of education. 2004) Educational foundations: An
anthology of critical readings, 99-111.
Johnson, M. B. (1999). Communication in the Classroom.
Long, N. & Zelton, K. (2014). Parent/Child Communication. Retrieved from:
http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Parent_Communication_5/