Skip to content
 
Add note
  • Site Map
  • FMHS Teaching Portfolio
  • Feedback about this website

Communicating with diverse groups of students

A Model for Understanding Communication

Good communication is at the heart of effective teaching practice, whether you are giving a lecture, facilitating a small group or teaching at the bedside or in the workplace. 

There are numerous communication theories that inform communication practice. Schulz von Thun's Four Sides Model of Interpersonal Communication suggests that communication can be considered in terms of four sides of a square, each side reflecting a different aspect of the communication process. Each time, teachers communicate with students they convey several messages concurrently. The main message is the intended one but other messages may accompany this primary message. These other messages may be "coloured by" cultural and personality factors.

According to von Thun's model (see figure below):

  1. The factual information component relates to the information that the teacher wants to impart to the student. This information is what the teacher (or sender) feels the student (or receiver) will comprehend. In a diversity situation, the teacher needs to consider difference with respect to cultural background, linguistic and knowledge understandings, levels of competency, reasoning abilities, and capability of retention.

  2. The self-revelation aspect is concerned with what the teacher says about their 'inner being' to the student. This type of information may be affect-related or context driven and tells the student about who they are at that point in time. It might be anger, frustration, humour, or delight. In relation to a diversity situation, humour, for example, can be misinterpreted by the student if that student comes from a different culture, or whose language codes are very different to those of the teacher.

  3. The relationship aspect refers to how the teacher relates to the student. This is a very important aspect of the relational space that both teacher and student enter, and occupy, when engaged in communication. Every culture has its own rules and norms in terms of the modes of conduct within this space. Teachers need to be aware of personal space, tone of voice, gestures, facial expressions, and choice of words.

  4. The appeal aspect considers the effect the teacher wants to impart to the student. The main effect is to inform students so that their competencies, knowledge and attitudes are informed. In addition, the teacher requires feedback from students to ensure that they have understood the message to make certain learning has taken place. Accordingly teachers need to consider appropriate questioning techniques that can maximise the learning process, by using a variety of methods that fit the student's case. If working with a Pasifika student, for example, it is important to develop a sense of connection with the student by engaging at a deeper level of discourse by considering their family history and where they come from, and thus, ensuring that the student will be receptive to the information being imparted. 

Colleague's view

Marcus Henning draws on personal experience and communication theory as he relates how he communicated with a student on an interpersonal level to facilitate engagement with the learning process.


Portfolio Possibilities


Check...

 Do I... 

  • Know the communication skills required to be effective with a diverse range students?
  • Know any of the theories of communication that might be useful in self-evaluation?

Edit page
    
Add paper Cornell note Whiteboard Recorder Download Close
PIP mode