Probably my summarization of the topics that were covered - a putting it all together. So its assists the students to keep it all together
For me, the most important communication skills in a diverse learning environment is that of listening. You must know where each student is coming from and what they bring to the table. You need to meet the student where they are in order to further their knowledge in the subject matter.
Thanks for your comment, Paul! I have to work on my patience as well; after having taught the same subject for years, I have to remind myself that students may not grasp information as easily as I present it.
Jay Hollowell
ED106 Facilitator
I would like to improve my patience. I think its amoung the most important.
Identifying with a large variety of backgrounds
Listening skills. I have a habit of cutting a student off in mid sentence, or in the middle of his or her question.
Hi Kasey! Thanks so much for your comments! Correct pronunciation and speed, on behalf of the instructor, have often come up in the discussion forums. It is, of course, very important for instructors to pronounce subject vocabulary correctly and speak clearly - it goes right to credibility.
Jay Hollowell
ED106 Facilitator
Student envolement, student interacting with the teaching process, actaully becoming part of the instructional activity.
I think it is important to be aware of the communication downfalls you may have, such as stumbling over words, etc. I know when I started teaching I would review all the terms first so that I did not have problems pronouncing the terms when I was in front of the class. I think it is important to try to slow down your speaking. This allows the students time to take in what you are saying while maintaining an appropriate pace. Eye contact and movement are two very important parts of communication that I use. Eye contact lets the students know you are aware of them and provides a way to diminish my own nerves. Movement does the same thing while keeping the discussion more dynamic. As a newer instructor, I need to improve on all of these things.
Listening to and making eye contact with students are important communication skills. I think these skills help the students to focus more on the content of the course and helps them to learn more of the content.
I believe using examples as they apply to the field is vital for all students in the class as is repetition. Keep the application of the terms simple and try to limit the amount of new terminology if possible.
I would like to improve my delivery of information during lecture by speaking more slowly. There is a lot of information I need to cover in a short period of time because I teach an accelerated course. I would like to simplify it to the very basics that way I have more time to let the new terminology and concepts to be absorbed by the students.
From a teaching perspective I think giving clear directions and organized information is the most benificial. Adult learners are in the class room to learn, being organized is more efficient and helps both me and the student.
as an Instructor I would like to improve the strength of my voice,I usually talk very softly and this makes me difficult to understand.
rebecca
The one communication skill I need improvemnet on is non-verbal..... smiling. I have never been a person who smiles constantly. When I make initial eye contact or the 5-7 seconds during lecture I do. I always qestion when I see people walking around with a constant smile it appears fake. How can I appear to be more approachable without smiling constantly?
Facilitating the flow of information
The most important communication skill in a diverse learning environment is the ability to gather information through LISTENING and OBSERVATION. Hearing what your students are telling you verbally and seeing what they are telling you through their behaviors and actions allows the instructor to assess readiness to learn.
A key element to this is the ability to limit our own preconceptions from coloring our perceptions of what the students are "telling" us. It is so easy to respond to the students based where we THINK they are; to answer a question we THINK they are asking. However, I have found that if I really try to listen to the question and assesses their body language, I can figure out more about where they are, what they really need at that moment to increase their learning.
My classroom communication skills are a present and future project at which I am constant in my pursuit of improvement. I just wish that I was better at instructor / administration communication skills. The requirements of memos, emails, texts, paperwork, back-up documentation and generally redundant posterior coverage encountered in some educational institutions leaves me baffled as to how anything gets done in the first place. But I keep at the duty in hopes of getting it right for one day at a time.
The use of proper english and enuciation are critical. The non-verbal comm, voice inflection and movement around the room techniques are icing on the cake.
Improvement for myself would be to include more of the room as a learning environment,
For communication is not only the ability to speak well but it is also how you come across/respond to your students be it by speech or your body language. I think it was in the module when it said smiling can have such a postive impact on the students in your classroom and I really try to that alot.
I would definately like to improve on my overall delivery. I have to the tendency to speak quickly and then my words sometimes all roll into one.
I would like to improve on keeping my students attention while lecturing. I talk fast and I keep them busy but I feel like one or two students have the tendency to roll eyes. I do notice they have attitude before the class even starts so maybe there is nothing I can do about that but it seems from my point of view I need to move around the class more and look at more students rather than half of them during lecture.
One of the areas that I need to be aware of is not discussing items "over the head" of the students. I can also improve by slowing down my presentations and getting the students to ask questions.
