Helping trainees to communicate effectively

Trainees may be preoccupied with what they will say to classes and fail to realise the importance of how they say it. Most trainees find it hard to believe just how complex and subtle the art of communication really is. As the course proceeds you will need to open their eyes both to the range of communication skills they will need and to techniques that they can master to help them teach more effectively. Activity 9.3.1 suggests one way of establishing the complexity of communication at an early point in the course.

There is an extensive range of contexts and purposes for which trainees need to develop communication skills. As part of their school placement, you might want trainees to observe the purposes for which experienced and skilled teachers use language. Examples might include giving instructions, sharing learning objectives, modelling, establishing success criteria for a particular exercise, linking episodes in the lesson, introducing significant terminology, listening carefully to pupils’ responses, playing ‘Devil’s Advocate’, giving feedback to a class, group or individual, and dealing with inappropriate behaviour. Example 2 in Activity 1.2.1 suggests how you might use observation by trainees and self-evaluation of their own teaching to improve a range of communication skills.

The aspects of communication listed above (among others) will all merit some attention during the course, as does the issue of judging how long the teacher can speak, without losing attention. You may find it helpful to link work on communication to your sessions on planning and structuring lessons, as certain types of language are likely to be prominent at different stages in a lesson.

Two classroom communication skills that have reasonably and rightly been given a high profile in the Key Stage 3 Strategy are those of explanation and questioning. Activity 9.3.2 offers guidance on whether/how you might wish to use these generic materials. Resource 4.2.8 provides an example rooted in history teaching and suggests some ways in which mentors might support a trainee who is having difficulties with explanations during a school placement. Note the suggestion that trainees may benefit from recording their own lessons for analysis afterwards.

Trainees need to learn that key parts of lessons can benefit greatly from careful planning of how the message will be put across. This goes well beyond the choice of words. Activity 9.3.3 might demonstrate this effectively in the context of a powerful start to a lesson (or sequence of lessons). It involves story telling - a skill that is all too often ignored or under-used in history teaching. Whether you use this approach or another, it is important to help trainees move beyond the skill of communicating information and into the skill of communicating fascination. Story telling is, of course, only one way of achieving this: you will want to model or exemplify others such as the use of intriguing ‘knowledge nuggets’ (‘Here’s my favourite fact about …’) or the sharing of historians’ puzzlement (‘We seem to have a problem here, how can we…?’).

The activities mentioned so far in this section, have been based on spoken communication. It will be important to help trainees to develop awareness (but not self-consciousness) about the power of body language. Some trainers have even enrolled the help of actors or colleagues who work in drama to improve trainees’ use of voice, pose, pause and expression in gaining the required effect in the classroom. At some point you will also want to address the issue of classroom layout and décor.

Finally, written communication from teacher to class is another important aspect of communication that requires more skill than trainees may imagine. You may find it helpful to get them to analyse the design and language of texts and worksheets as a way of raising awareness of this aspect of communication. Point size, line length and the use of white space, for example, can make considerable difference to pupils’ response to written work.