2d. Effective communication strategies 

1. Effective communication strategies with students and colleagues

SLSOs can use a range of communication strategies as part of their effective teaching support of students and when communicating with colleagues. You need to choose strategies that fit the particular situation. By remaining flexible and observant, we can determine which communication strategy may be most effective. Often, if one strategy doesn’t work, another will. Although this article is primarily about teaching strategies, each of the strategies is actually a communication strategy!

1b. The following article, 10 Effective DAP Teaching Strategies, outlines great communication and support strategies we can use with students.

3. Active listening techniques

Active listening is a way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding and demonstrates respect for the communicator. Often when people talk to each other, they don't listen attentively. They are often distracted, half listening, half thinking about something else.

People often focus on what they should say whilst the other person is talking, but effective communication is less about talking and more about listening. Listening well means not just understanding the words or the information being communicated, but also understanding the emotions the speaker is trying to communicate.

There’s a big difference between engaged listening and simply hearing. When you really listen—when you’re engaged with what’s being said—you’ll hear the subtle intonations in someone’s voice that tell you how they are feeling and the emotions they’re trying to communicate. When you’re an engaged listener, not only will you better understand the student or colleague, you’ll also make that person feel heard and understood, which can help build a stronger, deeper connection between you.

By communicating in this way, you’ll also experience a process that lowers stress and supports physical and emotional well-being. If the student or colleague you’re talking to is calm, for example, listening in an engaged way will help to calm you, too. Similarly, if the student or colleague is agitated, you can help calm them by listening in an attentive way and making them feel understood.

If your goal is to fully understand and connect with the other person, listening in an engaged way will often come naturally. If it doesn’t, try the following tips. The more you practice them, the more satisfying and rewarding your interactions with others will become.

Active listening techniques to practise:

To improve your active listening, you can try practising some skills that may improve your overall communication and be beneficial in building relationships.

You should aim to:

• be relaxed and approachable

• make eye contact where appropriate

• make positive gestures 

• give validation to the points raised

• ask questions to increase understanding of the subject matter

• support constructive debate and discussion

• repeat phrases or terminology used by the speaker (paraphrase).

and make sure you:

• Focus fully on the speaker

You can’t communicate effectively when you’re multitasking. If you’re daydreaming, checking your phone, or thinking about something else, you’re almost certain to miss nonverbal cues in the conversation. You need to stay focused on the moment-to-moment experience. If you find it hard to concentrate on some speakers, try repeating their words over in your head—it’ll reinforce their message and help you stay focused.

• Favour your right ear
  As strange as it sounds, the left side of the brain contains the primary processing centres for both speech comprehension and emotions. Since the left side of the brain is connected to the right side of the body, favouring your right ear can help you better detect the emotional nuances of what someone is saying.

• Avoid interrupting or trying to redirect the conversation to your concerns
  When you  say something like, “If you think that’s bad, let me tell you what happened to me", it shows the other person that you are more interested in yourself than them. Listening is not the same as waiting for your turn to talk. You can’t concentrate on what someone’s saying if you’re forming what you’re going to say next. Often, the speaker can read your facial expressions and knows that your mind is elsewhere.

• Show your interest in what's being said
  Nod occasionally, smile at the person, and make sure your posture is open and inviting. Encourage the speaker to continue with small verbal comments like “yes” or “uh huh.”

• Try to set aside judgment
  In order to communicate effectively with someone, you don’t have to like them or agree with their ideas, values, or opinions. However, you do need to set aside your judgment and withhold blame and criticism in order to fully understand them. The most difficult communication, when successfully executed, can lead to an unlikely connection with someone.

• Provide feedback
  If there seems to be a disconnect, reflect what has been said by paraphrasing. "What I'm hearing is," or "Sounds like you are saying," are great ways to reflect back. Don’t simply repeat what the speaker has said verbatim though, you’ll sound insincere or as if you do not understand. Instead, express what the speaker’s words mean to you. Ask questions to clarify certain points: "What do you mean when you say..." or "Is this what you mean?"Any of these points will help to demonstrate your interest in what the speaker is saying. This, in turn, makes them feel valued and appreciated and can work towards building a healthy professional relationship.

5.  Conversation - Exploring interests and raising concerns 

The practices of active listening and questioning can be used in conversations with students to build positive relationships. 

Exploring interests

When students are given opportunities to discuss their interests with their peers and teachers, they are being supported in building self-confidence.  Incorporating students’ ideas and interests also promotes engagement with learning.

Students’ interests can be used to:

• build rapport

• encourage and motivate participation in learning experiences

• form educational role plays 

• apply gamification to learning.

Raising concerns 

If a student chooses to raise a concern to you, you should endeavour to treat this respectfully, and so active listening skills should be applied. Concerns can often be sensitive in nature, and you must be empathetic to this. 

If the student is distressed, provide an opportunity to talk outside of the classroom, in consultation with the classroom teacher. If the concern is a safety or child protection issues, then involve the appropriate school-based staff and handle the conversation sensitively and in line with policy.

When a student raises concerns, you should: 

• do your best to reassure them:
  - use kind language
  - make eye contact where appropriate
  - offer them additional support 

• retain the information they share 

• make notes when appropriate and include a date and store in a confidential place, which may include a school a database

• follow school protocols and polices regarding communication to other staff and agencies.

Active listening skills will help to put the student at ease and should help them to be confident in a resolution being sought. Concerns can become a barrier to learning and should be dealt with promptly once raised.  

Identifying and removing barriers to active listening 

When it comes to applying active listening skills, various internal and external barriers could potentially be preventing you from being the best listener you can be. Often in conversation, people are waiting to speak rather than actively listening to their peers. You must be able to recognise and subsequently remove barriers to be able to actively listen effectively (15 Active Listening Techniques for Effective Communication, 2017). 

6. Provide supportive information and directions

There are many students who struggle to follow teacher directions or written directions due to poor working memory, receptive language difficulties or other issues that impact their ability to retain information.

It is critical that in a busy classroom you support those students by stepping in and:

• revisiting and restating directions

• simplifying directions or instructions

• providing visuals that will support them to follow the instructions

• Using modelling, non-verbal language and verbal language to provide support as the students start a task or activity

You might need to adapt:

• the paralanguage used

• the vocabulary selected and used

• the communication style (see page 1b)

You may need to build confidence in their ability to undertake the task by:

• supporting and restating comments like 'you can do this;

• by using strategies such as I do, We do, You do

• by pairing the student with another student

• providing cues or hints to get them started

• by providing a range of adjustments or modifications such as voice to text, text to voice etc.

8. Activity - Assessment Questions

Semester 1 Students 

Go to the Knowledge Assessment and do Part 1, Q1 if not already done and Q3, Q4 and Q5.
In Part 2, do Q1.

Go to the Project Assessment and complete Q11.

Semester 2 Students

Go to the Knowledge Quizzes (Assessments with 2 a the start) and complete Part 2 (paper) or 2.2 electronically.

Use this information in your strategies in Assessment 3.  In both Part 1 and Part 2 at Q5 note these as appropriate strategies to support the student.