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Communication takes many forms, and so can be implemented in many ways.  It is important to keep open lines of communication in any profession and among all relationships.  This fact is certainly true of the teaching profession.  In the following paragraphs, I will discuss communication in terms of verbal, non-verbal, and media.  Additionally, I will include examples from my own experience to demonstrate how each of these communication forms can be applied to the classroom.

In opening the discussion, I begin with verbal communication.  It is arguably through speech that the most explicit form of conveying thoughts, instructions, and information occurs.  Some of the most interactive, meaningful, and student-centered forms of verbal communication occur through class discussions.  As Stephen Brookfield (1999) explains in Discussions as a Way of Teaching, discussion’s effectiveness derives from its ability to build upon background knowledge, personal experience, and interpretation of ideas.  Therefore, discussion becomes relevant to the participants.

A major element of discussion, Brookfield explains, is questioning.  Verbal communication expressed through thoughtful questioning of ideas, events, and/or opinions keeps students engaged in the lesson at hand.  Also, questioning is not necessarily inherent to teachers or students, so practice and skill must take place when utilizing this strategy.  In planning questions for an engaging activity, the author suggests discussions include those questions that ask for further support of ideas, link experiences and prior knowledge to new ideas or opinions, and encourage students to predict, infer, or form their own opinions.  He also points out that this form of verbal communication can often be unpredictable and surprising, so teachers must be ready to create thought provoking questions on the spot, in addition to the planned questions (Brookfield, 1999, pp. 85, 87-89).

Continuing with communication in teaching, I shift my focus to non-verbal methodology.  It can include such outlets as body language, eye contact, and gesturing.  While non-verbal communication has many uses, I will focus on its use in incentive systems and student self-praise.  In Educational Psychology:  Theory and Practice, Robert E. Slavin (2003) discusses how grades can be used as non-verbal incentives in motivating students.  He notes that using grades as incentives for learning motivators can be an effective way communicating encouragement and/or feedback when applied close to the time when the students’ performance took place.  The closer to the time of the event, the more motivational power the grades hold.

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based on student progress rather than raw scores.  Doing so takes into account all levels of student ability—lower achieving learners can receive intrinsic incentives for improving from an F to a C, while higher achieving learners receive intrinsic incentives by progressing from a B to an A (2003, p. 358).

The author also discusses how students can receive encouraging non-verbal within themselves through self-praise.  By patting themselves on the back for accomplishing a task or meeting a goal, students increase their confidence, self-value, and academic success (Slavin, 2003, p. 358).  I suspect self-praise is a skill that must be modeled by teachers if it is to be used by students.

In concluding this discussion on best practices for communication methods used in active and meaningful teaching, a short discussion on media’s role in accomplishing this goal is in order.  Various media are used in the classroom, but this discussion focuses on two major categories—audiovisual media and computerized media—as outlined in Computers in the Classroom, by Edward Vockell and Eileen Schwartz (2009).

First, Vockell and Schwartz look at the benefits of audiovisual materials in communicating information that elicits active learning.  Photographs and other graphics, for instance, serve as more realistic modes of communicating subject content than textbooks.  Pictures and sounds—such as songs, spoken readings, or recited speeches—can grab students’ attention more easily that printed texts alone.  Finally, audiovisual materials give students of differing learning styles more opportunities to access subject content taught in a lesson (2009).

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As illustrated in the preceding paragraphs, there are many types of communication used in teaching.  Verbal, non-verbal, and media strategies are used collectively in lessons that successfully engage students in active and lasting learning.  In the remainder of this discussion, I will provide examples of how each communication type can be incorporated into curriculum planning.  I will explain specific lessons created over the past two semesters to support these examples.

My first example focuses on verbal communication.  In an introductory lesson to my unit on “The Spread of Communism”, I created an activity that required students to solve a problem based on a specific scenario.  In this scenario, each pair of students found a large sum of money lying in the street.  The problem was required the students to jointly decided what to do about their discovery.  The scenario become even more complicated once each student received an opposing solution to this problem.  The goal of the activity was for each pair to negotiate an agreed-upon solution, thus using compromise to do so.  In addition to analyzing their own ethics, students required a great deal of verbal communication to complete their tasks.  Through discussing their difference of opinion and forming unified answers, students learned what skills were required of the Big Three leaders during the Yalta conference of 1945.  The activity provided a smooth transition into acquiring information and meaning on a historically significant event.

A second example of learning through communication involves non-verbal interaction.  During the middle of the communism unit, I opened a lesson on the Berlin Airlift with an interactive and experiential activity.  This activity used both verbal and non-verbal communication, but it was the non-verbal interactions that created the most impacting learning experiences for the students.  Once they were seated, I asked two volunteers to divide the classroom in half with duct tape.  The tape was attached to opposite walls running the length of the room, and at about three feet above the floor.

Once the room was divided, I gave students directions to the main activity of the day, which was to complete a map on NATO and the Warsaw Pact.  Next, I showed the students where the map and art supplies were located in the room—on only one side of the tape barrier.  At that point in the activity, I told students to begin creating their maps then remained silent for the next two to three minutes, to observe what students learn from the set up of the room.  As some of the students realized their inability to acquire the needed items for their classwork, they began analyzing their environment very precisely—to devise a plan for acquiring the forbidden items.  The blockaded half of the room noticed that they were denied items essential to their academic survival due to a manmade barrier, and that the students on the other side were free to use those same items as they pleased.

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The situation and setting of the room spoke to the students louder than any simple lecture on the Berlin Blockade and Airlift ever could.  It was this non-verbal interaction that provided the learning opportunity necessary for understanding the causes, effects, and consequences of Joseph Stalin closing off the capital of Germany.

My final example of communication in the classroom illustrates how media can be used to convey valuable information to students.  In the Fall 2008 semester, I designed a lesson to teach the important inventions from the Industrial Revolution.  Being that the revolution occurred in the 18th and 19th centuries, I realized the possibility of disconnectedness between the time period and today.  As a result, I created a webquest that allowed students to connect the Industrial Revolution to the 21st century.

In the webquest, I introduced students to general everyday household items—such as email and cell phones—then led them in a computerized adventure back in time to observe these items (or their predecessors) being invented.  In the activity, students clicked on links to articles and videos that discuss the invention of these items and their inventors.  Students were expected to read each article, watch each video, and take notes on information they deemed important.  After “witnessing” the creation of these inventions, students were asked to choose two innovations, play the role of a New York Times reporter from the Industrial Revolution days, and write a one-page newspaper article on the impact of each item on 19th century society, and compare those thoughts to each item’s impact on society today.

By creating the Industrial Revolution webquest, I expect students to use such skills as online research, analysis of primary and secondary resources for important information, applying prior knowledge and personal experiences to new knowledge gained, and to synthesize knew learning through creation of an authentic product.  In doing so, computerized, audio, and visual media can communicate important subject content to a wide variety of learning styles and abilities.