Related Readings

Teaching and Communication skills

Teaching is a form of communication. Teachers are communicators.

Communication is more than a matter of teachers talking and students listening.
Communication also involves students talking and teachers listening. It is
important that learners get opportunities to participate in the communication
process. Through creating opportunities for interaction (for example, by inviting
questions and answers from learners, or through initiating discussions or group
presentations), the teacher can monitor the learners’ perceptions and
understandings and adjust his or her own communications accordingly.
What is more, communication is more than just talking and listening (verbal
communication). It is also includes non-verbal communication such as teachers’
actions, movements, tone of voice, and facial expressions (together, their body
language). Some researchers say that as much as 65% of effective communication
is non-verbal. Effective communication between a teacher and his or her learners
also depends on the teacher’s credibility with them: do the learners trust that what
the teacher says is believable, and does the teacher’s body language support and
strengthen this trusting relationship on a daily basis? One of the ways by which
teachers can earn the trust and respect of their learners is by practicing “congruent
communication” as opposed to “incongruent communication.” Congruent
communication is also known as the language of acceptance. The language of
acceptance acknowledges the learner’s situation and reflects a non-discriminatory
attitude by the teacher (Tuckman and Monetti 2011, 373). Incongruent language
is also known as the language of rejection. Ginott (1922-1973) provides an
example of how the language of acceptance is different from the language of
rejection. Ginott states that if a child spills paint his or her teacher can address the
situation using language of acceptance (congruent communication) by saying “I
see the paint has spilled, let’s get some water and a towel.” Alternatively the
teacher can use the language of rejection (incongruent communication) by saying
“What’s the matter with you? You are so clumsy. Didn’t I tell you to be careful? You
never listen.” In the first situation, we can see that the teacher’s response involves
him or her accepting that a situation has happened and addressing it. In the second
situation, the teacher’s response involves attacking the personality and character
of the child. Ginott advises that in order for a teacher to earn the trust of the child
in this situation, he or she should use congruent communication and speak about
the situation (the spilled paint) instead of using incongruent communication to
speak about the personality and character of the child (Ginott 1993, 83).
Teachers also have to become sensitive to cultural rules (often implicit or hidden)
when they communicate with their learners. For example in some East Asian and
African cultures learners are expected not to make eye contact with their teachers
when they talk to them. This is a sign of respect. In most western cultures the exact
opposite is true.

Teaching: Art or science?

While educational psychologists claim that they have put teaching on a
scientific footing because they conduct systematic scientific research into human
behavior, thinking and learning, and instructional design, there are many elements
that characterize it as an art. Events inside the classroom are often spontaneous
and unpredictable. These require a teacher’s intuition, or the ability to act on a
feeling, instead of factual knowledge. It is impossible to provide teachers with a
magic formula that makes them effective, or a recipe to handle every circumstance
that arises. Further, it is difficult to evaluate the teaching performance of individual
teachers accurately and consistently because there is no single set of scientific
criteria to do so. Finally, some teachers appear to natural educators, but it is hard
to define what sets them apart from others. A teacher who attempts to base every
action on scientific evidence may come across as rigid and mechanical to his or
her learners
By contrast, a teacher who ignores scientific knowledge about teaching and
learning runs the risk of applying principles and methods that are ineffective
(Biehler and Snowman 1993, 20). Scientific research done by educational
psychologists and other educationalists can introduce teachers to principles and
theories of teaching that extend their ability or competence. Teaching from a
scientific basis helps teachers avoid the pitfalls of subscribing to the latest fad (a
fashionable but unproven method of teaching). If teaching is purely an art, then
effective teaching would be determined by the teacher’s natural talent or by long
years of practice. But, there is a sizeable body of scientific research and research-
validated instructional practices that have been shown to improve teacher
performance and learners’ achievement.

The reflective teacher

To reflect means “to think.” “To reflect about your actions” as a teacher
means that you think and plan carefully about the way that you want to do things,
and how these things should be done. Reflective teaching can therefore be seen
as a blend of teaching as an art and teaching as a science. Reflective teachers
think carefully about the educational goals they want to achieve, and whether or
not such goals are actually worth achieving. They think carefully about the nature
and effectiveness of the instructional methods and techniques they want to use to
reach those goals, and they question the underlying assumptions, for example the
means-end relationship, behind the choice of learning materials. They also reflect
about the extent to which scientific evidence supports their choices.
A good example of a means-end relationship can be found in learning a
second or third language. From a learning point of view, the end goal will determine
the shortest, most effective means (way) of achieving it. If the end goal is every
day spoken communication for the purposes of tourism, then a good means to the
end may be to attend a short language course or living with a family in the country
where the language is spoken. The picture changes dramatically if the end goal is
to earn an advanced degree in a language. Here the focus is on academic
purposes. This requires a high level of proficiency in the written and spoken forms
of the language, and a detailed understanding of its grammar and literature.
Achieving these will require a completely different means.
It is important for teachers to reflect carefully about long-range goals
because the choice of goals affects not only the learning materials or content to be
covered, but also the type of classroom activities (Brophy and Alleman 1991). If,
for example, the goal is for learners to acquire problem-solving skills, learners
would likely be engaged in activities that call for analysis (that is, breaking up the
problem into smaller parts), reasoning, and decision-making. Debates,
simulations, and laboratory experiments are just three examples of activities that
might be useful to meet such a goal. If, however, the goal is for learners to
memorize facts and information, learners will likely be given activities that call for
isolated memorization and recall. Worksheets and drill-and-practice exercises are
typically used as means to meet this type of goal. The point is that effective
teachers think about these issues as a basis for planning.

Becoming a reflective teacher

Becoming a reflective teacher is not difficult, although it does require
practice. As you try out various teaching techniques or wonder why certain learners
respond to instruction as they do, formulate hypotheses (tentative explanations)
and then try to test them. You will rarely be able to do this in a completely controlled
way, but you can often set up simple experiments. For example, if most of the
learners in your class seem to be restless whenever you present a particular topic,
you might test a hypothesis such as: learners will be interested and focused if I
have learn-by-doing activities during the lesson.
 Once you have established a hypotheses you can test it by trying it out. As
you do so, play the role of the teacher as an artist and be enthusiastic and
committed. Then play the role of the teacher as a scientist: be objective when
analyzing the results of your teaching. If you find that your learners respond more
positively, or that test scores are up, or that the quality of their work has improved,
you have evidence to substantiate your hypothesis. If student behavior remains
unchanged or deteriorates, however, formulate another hypothesis and test it.
Most truly reflective teachers keep a personal teacher’s portfolio or
workbook, in which they record all their experiments, experiences, and findings.

Teachers as self-regulated, life-long learners

In addition to being critical thinkers and creative decision makers, most
effective teachers are also lifelong learners. This means that they never stop
learning and never consider themselves as knowing all there is to know. As
McCown et al (1996, 17) state, to become an expert teacher, you must first become
an expert learner. And becoming an expert learner implies that the teacher
practices self-regulation.
Self-regulated teachers take responsibility for building their own knowledge
and skills base. They set new learning goals based on their own experiences and
the reflection of others like them. They motivate themselves to learn and uncover
new information; they monitor their own progress, assess the extent of their own
mastery of new knowledge and skills, and continuously redirect the course of their
learning and development.
The continuous cycle of reconstruction that reflective, self-regulated
teachers follow in the life-long learning process of building knowledge and
expertise in their profession. It begins with their own personal experiences of being
taught throughout their own years of schooling, progresses to their training as
teachers, including their study of educational psychology, and gaining more
knowledge and expertise as teachers. Ultimately, successful teachers will be able
to integrate and reflect critically about educational concepts, principles, theories,
and classroom interactions, and they will develop, construct, and reconstruct a
personal theory of teaching flowing out of life-long learning and classroom
experience.