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Assign video-watching and reflection as a take-home assignment. This is a helpful alternative to students watching their videos with their peers and may offer the chance for a more in-depth response Effective Communication in the Classroom: Skills for Teachers
Communication is key in the classroom: successful teaching is generally considered to require only 50% knowledge to 50% communication skills. As a result, a teacher should be proficient in all four modes of communication – listening, speaking, reading, and writing – and should know how to utilise this proficiency effectively in a school environment. Being able to do this has been proven to impact the success students achieve in their academic lives, as well as the teacher’s own career success.
In this article, we will outline the reasons why classroom communication has such importance. You will also learn some of the strategies you can use to help you and your students attain your best outcomes.
Why is it Important for Teachers to Have Effective Communication Skills?
Teachers benefit from good communication skills in three different areas: when communicating with students, with parents, and with colleagues.
2.Communicating with Students
Communication skills are most vital for interactions with students, because the act of teaching itself requires them. In your role, you are responsible for comprehending and breaking down complex information, conveying this information clearly to your students (both verbally and in written resources), presenting in a manner that sustains their attention, and listening to and resolving their questions or problems.
You are also required to adapt content for different learning styles, motivate students to learn, build supportive relationships using encouragement and empathy, manage the classroom, and give feedback – making your classroom a safe and supportive learning environment. All of these things require good communication skills.
The better your communication skills, the more effectively you can perform these tasks. In turn, your students will make more academic progress. Studies have found that the success of students is directly related to interactive, engaging teaching environments formed by able teachers (see Mashburn et al., 2008). Additionally, the way that you communicate with your students can positively affect their perceptions of school, their role in the classroom, themselves and their abilities, and their motivation to succeed (see Dobbs & Arnold, 2009).4
However, this works both ways: poor communication skills – and thus poor methods of teaching – causes students’ comprehension levels to drop, and may affect their academic progress negatively. It could also lead to students lacking motivation, disliking school, and believing themselves to be unable to achieve. This could have consequences for the rest of their lives.
Therefore, effective communication between teachers and students is extremely important. It allows you to perform your job well, with positive results for your pupils. An added benefit is that your class can use you as a model for improving their own communication skills, which are critical for their development and future learning.
Effective coaching and mentoring can help boost your communication with students as you focus on three key areas: foundations, principles and practice.
Communicating with Parents As a teacher, you will also need to communicate effectively with parents. This could take place through a variety of mediums, including phone calls, emails, and in-person meetings, so you must be skilled with both verbal and written language.
This is particularly important because you will often have to discuss sensitive subjects – such as behaviour issues, learning problems, and the student’s strengths and weaknesses – without making the parent feel confused or defensive. It is vital that you are clear, but tactful, at all times. Failing to communicate well with parents could lead to doubts on their part about your ability to teach, and possible complaints, as well as a lack of understanding of their child’s performance and educational needs.
Communicating with Colleagues. Teaching does not always involve independent work – it also requires collaboration. Whether you are planning lessons together, updating your colleagues on certain students’ progress, or sharing tips about how to handle issues in the classroom, good communication skills will be of use to you.
You might also utilise these skills in staff meetings and training sessions – being able to lead meetings, present in front of varied audiences, and give feedback to other staff could illustrate to your colleagues and superiors that you are a good candidate for promotion.
As we have demonstrated, there are many reasons why effective communication skills are imperative in a teaching career. In the next section, we will give you some strategies to improve your communication in the classroom.
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