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Communication process in the classroom

Communication

The word communication is derived from the Latin word ‘communis’, which means
‘common’, i.e., to share, exchange, send, transmit, and communicate. The other
etymological source mentions that ‘communication’ is derived from the Latin term
‘communicare’, which means to impart or participate. In short, we can define
communication as sharing ideas and feelings mutually. In a classroom, the meaning of
communication is related to the messages and counter-messages, which constitute the
teaching-learning process. This involves initiation, reception and response that serve as
feedback.
Communication Cycle
The process of communication is a form of cyclic one as it begins with the sender and
ends with the sender, in the form of feedback. This message must be conveyed through
some medium to the recipient. It is essential that this message must be understood by
the recipient in same terms as intended by the sender. He must respond within a time
frame. Thus, communication is a two way process and is incomplete without a feedback
from the recipient to the sender on how well the message is understood by him.
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The main components of communication process are as follows:

1. Sender - Sender is a person who sends the message. A sender makes use of
symbols (words or graphic or visual aids) to convey the message and produce
the required response.

2. Message - Message is a key idea that the sender wants to communicate.

3. Encoding -Since the subject matter of communication is theoretical and

intangible, its further passing requires use of certain symbols such as words,
actions or pictures etc. Conversion of subject matter into these symbols is the
process of encoding.

4. Medium - Medium is a means used to exchange / transmit the message. The

choice of appropriate medium of communication is essential for making the
message effective and correctly interpreted by the recipient.

5. Recipient - Recipient is a person for whom the message is intended / aimed /

targeted.

6. Decoding - The person who receives the message or symbol from the
communicator tries to convert the same in such a way so that he may extract its
meaning to his complete understanding.

7. Feedback - Feedback helps the sender in confirming the correct interpretation of

message by the decoder. Feedback may be verbal (through words) or non-verbal
(in form of smiles, sighs, etc.).

Types of Communication

People communicate with each other in a number of ways that depend upon the
message and its context in which it is being sent. There are variety of types of
communication.

Types of communication based on the communication channels used are:

1. Verbal Communication
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2. Nonverbal Communication

1. Verbal Communication

Verbal communication refers to the form of communication in which message is

transmitted verbally; communication is done by word of mouth and a piece of writing.

Verbal Communication is further divided into:

 Oral Communication

 Written Communication

i) Oral Communication

In oral communication, Spoken words are used. In oral communication,

communication is influence by pitch, volume, speed and clarity of speaking.

Advantages of Oral communication are:

It brings quick feedback.
In a face-to-face conversation, by reading facial expression and body language one can
guess whether he/she should trust what’s being said or not.

Disadvantage of oral communication

In face-to-face discussion, user is unable to deeply think about what he is delivering, so
this can be counted as a

ii) Written Communication

In written communication, written signs or symbols are used to communicate. A written

message may be printed or hand written..

Advantages of written communication includes:

Messages can be edited and revised many time before it is actually sent.
Written communication provide record for every message sent and can be saved for
later study.
A written message enables receiver to fully understand it and send appropriate
feedback.
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Disadvantages of written communication includes:

Unlike oral communication, Written communication doesn’t bring instant feedback.
It take more time in composing a written message as compared to word-of-mouth. and
number of people struggles for writing ability.

2. Nonverbal Communication

Communication other than oral and written, such as gesture, body language, posture,
tone of voice or facial expressions, is called nonverbal communication. Nonverbal
communication is all about the body language of speaker.

Nonverbal communication have the following three elements:

Appearance
Speaker: clothing, hairstyle, neatness, use of cosmetics
Surrounding: room size, lighting, decorations, furnishings

Body Language
facial expressions, gestures, postures

Sounds
Voice Tone, Volume, Speech rate

Types of Communication Based on Purpose and Style

Based on style and purpose, there are two main categories of communication and they
both bears their own characteristics. Communication types based on style and purpose
are:

1. Formal Communication

2. Informal Communication

Principles of effective classroom communication

▪ Principle of competency

▪ Principle of suitability of content

▪ Principle of focus
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▪ Principle of effective strategies

• Principle of feedback and reinforcement

• Principle of readiness and motivation

▪ Principle of sharing and interaction

▪ Principle of pupil centeredness

• Principle of mutual understanding

FACTORS AFFECTING COMMUNICATION

A number of factors which may disrupt the communication process and affect the
overall understanding and interpretation of what is communicated are :

1. Status / Role
2. Cultural differences.

3. Choice of communication channel.

4. Length of communication.

5. Use of language.
6. Individual Perceptions / Attitudes / Personalities.

7. Known or Unknown Receiver.

1. Status/Role
The sender and receiver of a message may be of equal status within a hierarchy (e.g.
managers in an organisation) or they may be at different levels (e.g.
manager/employee, lecturer/student, business owner/clients).This difference in status
sometimes affects the effectiveness of the communication process.

2. Cultural Differences
Cultural differences, both within or outside the organisation may impede the
communication process.

3. Choice of Communication Channels

Sender should choose the most appropriate channel for a particular purpose
and keeping the person/receiver in mind.
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Sending messages via inappropriate channels can send out wrong signals and end up
creating confusion.

4. Length of Communication

The length of the message also affects the communication process.

Sender need to be sure that it serves the purpose and is appropriate for the receiver.

Is the message too long or too brief?

5. Use of Language

The language used must be familiar to the receiver .

Poor choice of words or weak sentence structure also hampers communication.

Sentences must be framed correctly .

6 .Individual Perceptions/Attitudes/Personalities

Sometimes, the method of communication needs to take into consideration

the receiver's personality traits, perceptions , age and preferred style.
EXAMPLE -The elderly and children, have different communication needs and
preferences when compared to young adults.
7 .Known or Unknown Receiver

Whether the receiver is known or unknown to sender also plays a major role in
determining the effectiveness of the communication.

 A known receiver may be better able to understand the message despite having
insufficient information as both sender and receiver have common experiences .

 An unknown receiver, on the other hand, may require more information and time
to decode the message.

Other factors

 Factors related to the sender

 • language competency
 • voice
 • facial expressions
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 • emotions
 • energy level
 • age and experiences
 • attitude, beliefs, values
 Factors related to the message
 • accuracy and precision of words
 • simplicity and clarity
 • appropriateness
 • imagination and originality
 •choice of medium, length of communication
 Factors related to the receiver
 • intelligence
 • attitude towards the subject or sender
 • age and experiences
 • self esteem
 • motivational level
 • beliefs and values
 • previous experience
 • listening skills

Barriers to classroom communication

Communication plays a major role in developing a relationship in-between the teacher
and student. Communication is an integral part of teaching because the students must
understand the message the teacher is trying to convey. In the classroom learning
teachers have an increasingly difficult job trying to communicate effectively with the
student because psychological barriers are due to the emotional character and mental
limitations; also it contains students who come from varied backgrounds.

Several factors in the classroom (and many of these factors exist in day-to-day life as
well) can act as barriers to effective communication.

1. Verbalism:
Excessive verbalism can no longer be condoned, particularly in today’s world of
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communication. Such verbalism is a limiting barrier to effective classroom

communication.

2. Anxiety: One of the significant communication barriers is a student’s anxiety.

Anxiety stops students from participating in group discussions because they don’t
want to be made the center of attention and are afraid of other people’s opinions
of them.

3. Language:
Language is the primary way of communicating thoughts and ideas. This can be
a significant communication barrier if the teacher and the students don’t speak
the same language.

4. Expression:
Communication is never exact. The initiator tries to put his ideas into words, and
then the recipient has to decode those words to understand the concept. When
the teacher or student can’t choose the proper words to describe the ideas they
want to convey, this will create a communication barrier in the classroom. An
example of this could be a teacher who is a professional mathematician but an
ineffective math teacher because the only way she can convey ideas is to use
math jargon that the students cannot understand.

5. Reference Confusion:
Different explanations and applications of the same word convey a different
meaning to every one of the students, for each of their backgrounds varies and
thus influences the interpretation and understanding that reference confusion
occurs. For this reason, proper communication between teachers and students is
not possible. Reference confusion is common in reading. The ability of two
people to use the exact words and arrive at entirely different understandings is
one of the great dangers in our classrooms. Other areas of knowledge,
experience, background, etc., are responsible for reference confusion.

6. Daydreaming: A familiar barrier to effective communication occurs when the

learner daydreams, that is when he turns away from the flow of classroom
communication and dwells upon his own privately recalled understanding and
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experiences, which are more preoccupying than those which are identified with
classroom activity. Students are failed to keep their full attention in the classroom
if they think about the movie that was seen the previous night. As a result, they
cannot give their proper attention to the lecture of the important teachers, which
creates a significant problem in classroom communication.

7. Imperceptions:
Students cannot understand the teacher’s important class lecture if they have
any physical problems. The psychological function can do nothing in this case.
So students may gather knowledge superficially in the classroom; thus,
communication fails.

8. Disinterest:
Disinterest arises among the students due to the lack of available teaching
materials, teaching systems, and efficient teachers in the classroom. Teachers
should include motion pictures, films and many other audio-visual materials to
eradicate distance.

9. Physical discomfort:
Students may feel pain due to insufficient internal or external equipment in the
classroom, like fans, light, air, etc. For this reason, they may lose interest in
hearing the lecture of their teachers.

Other barriers to classroom communication or highly influencing factors in

communication:

 Location or distance barriers: This barrier is significant when speaking to a

group of audience. For example, if you are standing on a stage and never
venture into the audience, the distance itself can send a message contrary to
what you intend.

 Lack of common experience: If you use technical terms or another language

your audience does not understand, you will miss the mark. You chose to speak
only to your level of knowledge or experience rather than considering theirs.

 Gender barrier: It has been demonstrated in studies that women communicate

more regularly than men do. Though both sexes have both kinds of
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communicators, women are more likely to be right-brain communicators —

abstract and intuitive. Men are more likely to be left-brain communicators – linear
and logical. Depending on your makeup, this could be a barrier. Both men and
women must learn how to communicate in a way that allows both sexes to
receive and understand the message.

 Lack of credibility: If it’s evident that you’re speaking strictly from book
knowledge rather than personal experience, or if your audience does not see
how what you are saying could be true, this creates a credibility problem. The
audience will suspect you don’t know what you’re discussing. As a sender, you
must ensure your stories don’t lead the audience to question your credibility and
authenticity.

 Age factors: The understanding capacity of different ages of pupils is other. The
senior student understands anything more rapidly and sufficiently than the junior
one. Thus, age varies from person to person, the place to place, and
communication.

Other barriers may be as follows:

 Economic factor;

 Organization and religious aspects;

 Political factor;

 Social factor;

 Racial characteristics, etc.

 Lack of motivation
 Low IQ levels
Overcoming the barriers of communication
• Simplify Language
• Constrain Emotions
• Listen Actively
• Feedback
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After the above discussion, we may say that communication is the unique process of
our social, cultural, political, and economic development. All developmental activities
largely depend upon proper communication. Classroom learning also becomes effective
with appropriate communication between students and teachers. Some barriers affect
classroom communication. Audio-Visual instruction may solve these communication
barriers.

Use of Instructional Materials and media

Instructional materials (IMs): The great Soviet encyclopedia defines IMs
as educational resources used to improve students’ knowledge, abilities, and skills, to
monitor their assimilation of information, and to contribute to their overall development
and upbringing. It refers to the human and non-human materials and facilities that can
be used to ease, encourage, improve and promote teaching and learning activities

Instructional materials are those items that assist and describe the information aspect of
teaching. These could take the form of textbooks, worksheets, 3D models, charts,
infographics, etc. Instructional materials also include assessment and testing methods.

Using the instructional material is to enhance effective understanding of the topic within
a short time.

Every topic has a different or similar instructional material. Several topics may share the
same teaching aid, yet they have completely different instructional materials. For
example, Wind and Water are topics in Basic Science for Grade 3.

CHOOSING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

Choosing an instructional material could be a very difficult task. Sometimes it requires

brainstorming and a tactical approach. Teachers find it difficult to select effective
instructional material for their lessons.

There are three things to consider before choosing instructional material for your lesson.
The first is the nature of the topic. Secondly, you have to consider the number of
learners in the class and lastly, the duration of the lesson.
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The nature of the topic – The nature of the topic determines the kind or class of
instructional materials to use for the lesson. Some lessons require live instructional
materials, some pictorials, some concrete and others, audio-visual instructional
materials. Live instructional materials do not mean that the instructional materials have
to be alive. It means that they are moving living organisms (confined), fresh dead
organisms or parts of the bodies of living organisms. One may choose to use the heart
of a goat to teach learners about the heart.

The number of learners – This has to be considered before choosing an instructional

material for your class. If a teacher intends to use a picture for a class consisting of
between 20 and 50 learners, the picture has to be bold and bright. If it cannot be made
large and bold, a good number of copies should be produced and distributed to the
learners. In a situation where concrete materials are to be used, the teacher has to make
a minimum of 5 of the items available for the class. For example, to teach a topic like
Soil Texture, the teacher needs samples of the three types of soil. The teacher can
distribute samples of the soils to the learners in bottle corks for each child to feel and
tell their different textures.

The duration of the lesson – The use of instructional materials do not necessarily have
to take the entire lesson period. Ten to fifteen minutes is enough for the use of
instructional materials for 30 minutes and 1-hour lessons respectively.

Some broad categories of instruction materials are:

Print Materials

 Books ,Reference books, Workbooks ,Practice etc.

Electronics, Technology, and Media Devices

 Microscopes, Binoculars and telescopes, Calculators, Audiovisual media, CD

and cassette players, Microphones, Computers

Visualizations and Graphics

Graphs, diagrams, flow charts, tables, and visual explanations of statistics

Games and Interactive Resources

 Puzzles and brainteasers, Role-play, Games

Classification
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Traditional resources: lectures, talks, writings, project rubrics, guidelines, textbook

primers, reference books, extra-readings, teacher and student-created summaries,
workbooks, supplementary material such as flashcards and charts

Digital media: Explainer videos, photos, presentations, infographics, talking-head

videos, audio summaries, podcasts

Open resources: Expert blogs, open-source journals, public databases, open

courseware, forum discussions, memes

Testing resources: Standardized tests, classroom assignments, online submissions,

quizzes, essays, collaborative projects

Artificial intelligence (large language models): Artificial intelligence, like chatGPT, a

large language model, is trained on vast amounts of collective human knowledge. It has
a conversational, troubleshooting, and explanatory approach to information delivery.
Technically, students can use AI systems as a teacher to supplement human teachers.

Benefits of teaching aids and instructional materials

1. Some academic subjects like biology or electronics can benefit students in more
useful ways if they know what the real-world counterparts to a theory are –
circuits, a tissue under a microscope, plants, etc. Such information sticks longer
because the memory encoding for these concepts involves strong sensory and
experiential components. The brain acquires concepts with multiple
representations in a network- right from what the concept looks on paper to how
it feels to the senses.

2. IMs and TAs also motivate students at the level of the classroom. This goes hand
in hand with confidence (security that one can learn), as having materials is proof
of accessing information. Having access can, at the very least, prime students to
learn.

3. Testing and assessment not only help to confirm the learning of content but also
helps improve the learning. Research has shown that being tested (the testing
effect) can promote memory and conceptual understanding.
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4. Additionally, when teachers use quality instructional materials, they can be

confident that their students are receiving consistent and accurate information.
5. Instructional materials can help make content more engaging. Instructional
materials can help to make even the driest topics more engaging for students.
6. Good instructional materials will capture students’ attention and help them to
better understand and retain the information presented. In addition, using various
types of instructional materials can keep students from getting bored with the
material or feeling like they’re “just going through the motions” in class.
7. 4. Instructional materials can save time for both teachers and students.
8. Instructional resources level the playing field among learners. Students who
have access to quality instructional resources often have an advantage over
those who do not.

What is Using Media to Enhance Teaching and Learning

The term media was first used to describe newspapers more than two centuries ago.
Today media has many different connotations. For instance, there are mass media,
print media, visual media and social media. While media can take on many different
forms, the purpose of all media is universally the same -- media is a channel of
communication.

Media can be used in direct instruction, active learning teaching strategies and student
projects.

 Media allows the instructor to facilitate the transfer of expert knowledge to novice
learners.

 Media resources can also be used to engage students and facilitate active
learning strategies which promote deeper learning. For example, media provides
a useful platform for teaching with cases, cooperative learning, problem solving,
and for giving more interactive lecture demonstrations.

 Popular media (films, music, YouTube) are a familiar medium to students that
helps gain attention and maintain student interest in the theories and concepts
under discussion. Students can see the theories and concepts in action. In more
than a figurative sense, theories and concepts leap from the screen.
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 Students can hone their analytical skills by analyzing media using the theories
and concepts they are studying.

 The use of media in the classroom enables students to see concepts and new
examples when they are watching television, listening to music, or are at the
movies with friends.

 Students can experience worlds beyond their own, especially if the media is
sharply different from their local environment.
Some Cautions
In addition to numerous advantages, there are also a number of cautions that
faculty should keep in mind in utilizing media. Using media requires a complete
understanding of copyright law, an appreciation of the workload involved, and
some skill in recognizing content that will enhance learning, instead of becoming
a distraction.
 One question that inevitably arises is concern over the copyright issues that
accompany using this medium in teaching.

 Using media often times requires additional work (e.g. prepositioning a DVD it
at the start of a scene before class, digitizing media for playback on a computer
and making sure that the audio-visual equipment is functioning properly
beforehand).

 Media scenes (e.g. humor, drama, terror, and language) may distract some
students from the theories and concepts the scenes portray. Some students
may become offended by media with objectionable content.

 Utilizing media takes time away from other classroom activities. Instructors need
to decide whether the media makes its point efficiently and with enough effect
to warrant the use of class time. Media that are short (generally 10 minutes or
less) minimize the class time spent on content unrelated to the learning
objectives.
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