This document discusses effective communication in the classroom. It begins with quotes about the importance of communication skills for leadership and teaching effectiveness. It then lists the objectives of the document, which are to define communication, discuss its components and forms, and apply communication principles based on learners' styles. It goes on to define communication and discuss its key elements - context, sender, message, medium, receiver, feedback. It also covers the major forms of communication and models of communication processes. Throughout, it emphasizes applying communication knowledge and skills to improve classroom instruction and student learning.

1. Mudasiru Olalere YUSUF (PhD)
Department of Educational Technology
University of Ilorin

2. Quotes
Developing excellent communication skills is
absolutely essential to effective leadership. The leader
must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit
a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others. If a
leader can't get a message across clearly and motivate
others to act on it, then having a message doesn't even
matter
Gilbert Amelio
If you improve a teacher's selfesteem, confidence, communication skills or stress
levels, you improve that teacher's overall
effectiveness across the curriculum
Elaine MacDonald

3. Objectives
At the end of this lecture, you should be able to:
• Define the term communication and its
importance in classroom instruction.
• List and discuss the components / elements of
communication.
• Distinguish among the five forms of
communication.
• Apply the communication principles in
facilitating learners of different learning styles
(Visual
Learners,
Auditory
Learners, Reading/Writing Preference Learners
and Kinesthetic Learners).

4. What is Communication?
 Communication is a process of interaction of
ideas between the communicator and the
receiver to arrive at a common understanding
for mutual benefit (Berlo, 1960),
 A process of transmitting information and
common understanding from one person to
another (Keyton, 2011).
 It is a process of generating meaning by
sending and receiving verbal and non-verbal
symbols and signs.
 Communication is a two way interactive
process of:
 Communicating TO others and

5. Forms of Communication
There
five
forms
of
communication:
Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Group, Public and Mass
Communication Description
Forms of
Implications in the
Communic
ation
Intrapersonal Communication with
oneself and occurs only
inside our heads (internal
reflective thinking).
Triggered by internal or
external stimulus
Interpersonal Communication between
people whose lives
mutually influence one
Classroom
Teachers should provide
enabling external stimuli
for positive intrapersonal
communication, because
it can berate or encourage
students to learn
Teachers should
encourage positive use of
interpersonal

6. Forms of Communication (2)
Forms of
Description
Communica
tion
Group
Group communication
occurs when three or more
people communicate to
achieve a shared goal.
Public
Implications in the
Classroom
Common communication
form in the classroom. It
should be student
centered and focused on
assisting all students to
learn
Public communication is Typical teacher centered
sender focused and
classroom instruction.
typically occurs when one May be for concept
person conveys
definition. Sparsely
information to an
relevant in the classroom.

7. Elements of Communication
Communication has six major elements or
components, and an intervening component:
 context,
 sender/encoder,
 message,
 medium,
 receiver/decoder,
 feedback.
 Noise (intervening element).

8. Elements of Communication (Context)
• Culture which relates to a setting which
determines the way communication takes
place
• External stimulus, what can motivate
students to respond in oral or written form.
• Internal stimuli like opinion, attitude, likes,
dislikes,
emotions,
experience,
competence, and confidence which can
influence communication.

9. Elements of Communication (1)
Context
• Culture which relates to a setting which
determines the way communication takes place
• External stimulus, what can motivate students to
respond in oral or written form.
• Internal
stimuli
like
opinion, attitude, likes, dislikes, emotions, experie
nce, competence, and confidence which can
influence communication.
Sender/Encoder
The person who sends message. In classroom oral
communication, the encoder is teacher, and in
written communication writer is the encoder.
Teacher
uses
combination
of
words, gestures, symbols, graphs and pictures

10. Elements of Communication (2)
Message
The information shared between sender and
receiver. For good communication, the central
idea of the message must be clear. Thus, the
teacher must decide what to communicate keeping
in mind the context and how the receiver
(students) will interpret the message.
Medium / Channel
The sensory route through which encoder will
communicate his message to the decoder. The
medium can be print, electronic, or sound. The
choice of medium may be dependent on
contextual factors, relationship between the sender

11. Elements of Communication (3)
Receiver/Decoder
The person to whom the message is being sent.
Receiver (student) may be a listener or a reader
depending on the choice of medium by sender
(teacher) to transmit the instructional contents.
Feedback
The response or reaction of the receiver to a
message. Communication is effective only when
it receives some feedback as it completes the
loop of communication.
Noise
Anything that can distort the message. These
include physical discomfort, perceptions of the
message,
language

12. Communication Process and Learners’
Learning Styles
Since communication is aimed at ensuring
students’ learning then their learning preferences
should inform classroom communication.
Students’ preferred learning modes:
• will impact on information that is accessed
through classroom communication as it assist in
their levels of comprehension, motivation and
meta-cognition.
• have significant influence on their behavior and
learning.
• should be matched with appropriate learning
strategies.
 The
Neil
Fleming’s
VARK
(visual,
auditory,
reading/writing,
and

13. Students’ Preferred Learning Modes

14. Barriers to Effective Classroom
Communication
 Lack of effective listening is one of the
most important barriers.
 Perception which refers different people
receiving and hearing the same message
but interpreting it differently.
 Language can also be a barrier if the
teacher and the students don't speak the
same language.
 Cultural differences can be a barrier if
messages are delivered in a way that is

15. Barriers to Effective Classroom
Communication
 Anxiety because if a student is
anxious and unsure, he/she is less
likely to speak up in class.
 Medical/Physiological issues and
disorders like stuttering, or more
advanced medical disorder as cerebral
palsy can also be a barrier to
communication.
 Poor channels can also be a barrier to

16. Barriers to Effective Classroom
Communication
 Jumbled messages (contradictory
messages or mixing an intended message
with unnecessary issues) can also be a
barrier to communication.
 Emotional states (depression, mood
swings, anxiety, low self-esteem, effects
of a traumatic event) can also be a barrier
to communication.
 Lack of credibility can also be a barrier
to communication.

17. Communication Models
 Models of communication refers to the
conceptual model on basic conception of
communication as the process of sending and
receiving messages or transferring information
from one part (sender) to another (receiver).
 We will discuss three models of communication
and their implications for classroom
instruction.
• Linear model
• Interactive model
• Transactional model

18. Communication Models (Linear/Psychological)
 The linear model views communication as a one-way
or linear process in which:
 the speaker speaks and
 the listener listens.
 Example is the Laswell’s (1948) model was based on
the five questions which effectively describe how
communication works:
Who
(Says)?
What ?
Through
What
Channel ?
To Whom ?
Figure 2: Linear Model of Communication
With What
Effect ?

19. Communication Models (Interactive)
 Linear model is flawed because it depicts
communication as a one-way process where:
 speakers only speak and never listen.
 listeners listen and never speak or send messages.
 Schramm (1955) developed an interactive model that
saw the receiver or listener providing feedback to the
sender or speaker.
 The speaker or sender of the message also listens to
the feedback given by the receiver or listener.
 Both the speaker and the listener take turns to speak
and listen to each other.
 Feedback is given either verbally or non-verbally, or
in both ways.
 The speaker and listener communicate better if they
have common fields of experience which overlap

20. Communication Models (Interactive [2])
Source’s Field of Experience
Decoder
Source
Encoder
Receiver's Field of Experience
Message
Feedbac
k
Decoder
Source
Encoder
Figure 2: Common Fields of Experience in Interactive
Model

21. Communication Models (Transactional)
 The drawback in the interactive model is that
it does not indicate that communicators can
both
send
and
receive
messages
simultaneously, and fails to show that
communication is a dynamic process.
 The transactional model (Wood, 2009) shows
that the elements in communication are
interdependent.
 Each person in the communication act is both
a speaker and a listener, and can be
simultaneously sending and receiving
messages.

22. Communication Models (Transactional)
Figure 3: Communication as Social System

23. Communication Models (Transactional)
Implications of the transactional model
 “Transactional” means that communication is
an ongoing and continuously changing process
(Teachers, students, and environment are
changing
 Each element in transactional process, exists in
relation
to
all
the
other
elements
(interdependence - no source without a receiver
and no message without a source).
 Each participant in the communication process
reacts depending on factors such as their
background, prior experiences, attitudes,
cultural beliefs and self-esteem.

24. The mediocre teacher tells. The good
teacher explains. The superior teacher
demonstrates. The great teacher
inspires
William Arthur Ward