Aldorey,
yes, knowing who our audience is & working to have the most effective types of communication is vital.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Communication is very important in our everyday life especially in the classroom setting. I think both verbal and non verbal communication skills are very important. It can increase your ability to communicate effectively by developing these skills. Just make sure who are your target audience...?
Eye Contact. Clear Voice. Body Language are important because diverse learners need to be constantly engaged
Gurinder ,
These are all great ways to help the students, especially the variety in the classes.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Students need to feel comfortable or they will not talk. Sometime the instructors body language can intimidate students too. I alway relax and lean on something. I sit on a table. It makes students feel relaxed. They cannot learn in an uptight environment
The most important communication skill in a diverse learning environment is non-verbal skills. Gestures and body language tends to have significant influence in communication and in some ways it could make or break the tone in the classroom.
I try to include more than one way to communicate with the students. In the class room I use auditory, and visual skills to help them understand the material. After the lecture, I post my lectures and write to the students highlightening the important points.
Frank,
I think this is an excellent way to round out the information & help the variety of learners in our classes.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Stephen,
this is an excellent point & one we should all take note of. We need to be sure we are aware of the perceptions of nonverbal in the various cultures that are represented in our classes.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I beleive all communication skills are important. Different students hear the same thing in different ways. So hear and retain, some need to hear something several times to retain
I always try to incorporate visual training aids with lecture along with anecdotal analogies to convey the course material.
I believe that the non-verbal skills may be the most important, especially with diverse backgrounds and ethnic backgrounds. What may be acceptable within one group, may not in another. Once you offend someone, your ability to teach is reduced, or eliminated, for that student.
Developing different ways to communicate the points that you are trying to make is important because different students learn by different modalities. Some are visual learners, others will learn best by hands on activities and others may learn best by lecturing.
Amy,
yes the more avenues in which we can reach the learners, the greater the likelihood that the material will "stick" with them.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Non-verbal communication skills are most important because it is most effective in making students comfortable (or not) in the classroom. Proper use of voice is important, but the non-verbal skills have a bigger impact in your teaching.
I feel visual communication is the best. If students are able touch, and feel what you are referring too, it impacts their educational experience even further
Ramondo,
yes the nonverbal are vitally important & we need to be aware of how much they really do communicate to the students & how they can help or hurt the overall tone.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I believe non-verbal is one of the most important communication skills because students read so much into your body language while you teach... If you appear distant students may not ask questions or feel intimidated. While if you are too laid back students may not take you seriously and loose focus. These things mostly come across in your non verbal communication.
