Effective Communication in Teaching
Effective communication skills are essential for early childhood educators to ensure a high level of academic care is provided and to develop strong relationships both inside and outside the classroom.
Without good communication there is no connection and a teacher will struggle to provide any type of educational experience to the children in their care. As stated by Johnson (1999)“communication is an ongoing process of sending and receiving messages that enable humans to share knowledge, attitudes and skills. Effective teaching depends on successful communication” (p4). Johnson (1999) believes that “communication is the driving force in any relationship or situation” (p3), therefore without effective communication the relationship and learning process will suffer.
The two types of communication used by teachers are verbal and non-verbal. Verbal communication is the most obvious form and is used in an early childhood education setting constantly throughout the day. This can include teacher to child, teacher to teacher, child to child and teacher to parent.
In an early childhood education setting, communication between teachers and children begins with a greeting in the morning as classes commence, and would continue constantly throughout the day. A typical day in a pre-school or infant’s school classroom would include activities such as roll call, group discussions and presentations like show and tell or news. These events would be a daily occurrence working to encourage communication between the teacher and the students, as well as between the students themselves, by giving each party a chance to speak and listen and exchange information and ideas. The day would continue with the teacher presenting new ideas and skills as part of the curriculum and, on a more casual basis, outside the classroom, during breaks and sport sessions.
It is important for early childhood educators to be able to recognise the different learning styles of children and be
Without good communication there is no connection and a teacher will struggle to provide any type of educational experience to the children in their care. As stated by Johnson (1999)“communication is an ongoing process of sending and receiving messages that enable humans to share knowledge, attitudes and skills. Effective teaching depends on successful communication” (p4). Johnson (1999) believes that “communication is the driving force in any relationship or situation” (p3), therefore without effective communication the relationship and learning process will suffer.
The two types of communication used by teachers are verbal and non-verbal. Verbal communication is the most obvious form and is used in an early childhood education setting constantly throughout the day. This can include teacher to child, teacher to teacher, child to child and teacher to parent.
In an early childhood education setting, communication between teachers and children begins with a greeting in the morning as classes commence, and would continue constantly throughout the day. A typical day in a pre-school or infant’s school classroom would include activities such as roll call, group discussions and presentations like show and tell or news. These events would be a daily occurrence working to encourage communication between the teacher and the students, as well as between the students themselves, by giving each party a chance to speak and listen and exchange information and ideas. The day would continue with the teacher presenting new ideas and skills as part of the curriculum and, on a more casual basis, outside the classroom, during breaks and sport sessions.
It is important for early childhood educators to be able to recognise the different learning styles of children and be
References: Johnson, M. (1999). Communication in the classroom. Place, stateUS Department of Education. Geng, G. (2011). Investigation of teachers ' verbal and nonverbal strategies for managing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) students ' behaviour within a classroom environment. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 36 (Issue 7), 17-30. Kranyik, M. (1975). Teaching to listen and listening to teach. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Conference on the Language Arts in Elementary School., Boston, MA. publisher. Arnold, M. (1979). Early child-child communication. Theory into Practice, Volume 18 (Issue 4), 213-219. Knott, G. (2011). Nonverbal communication during early childhood. Theory into Practice, Volume 18 (Issue 4), 226-233. Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations for the Council of Australian Governments. (2009). Belonging, being and becoming: The early years learning framework for Australia. Canberra, Australia. Author. McNaughton, D., Hamlin, D, McCarty, J, Head-Reeves, D, Schreiner, M. . (2007). Learning to listen: teaching an active listening strategy to preservice educational professionals. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education. , Volume 27 (Issue 4), 223-231.