Interpersonal Communication - the non-verbals
All sources quoted in Stones R (1984) Supervision in Teacher Education -
a Counselling and pedagogical approach; Methuen; ISBN 0 416 34990 0
Whitfield (1977) takes the view that establishing positive interpersonal
relations is primarily dependent upon nonverbal communication skills.
He gives the following list of nonverbal items as being of particular
importance for teachers. The labels are sort of self explanatory and can be used
as a focus for classroom observation or, perhaps more effectively, for self
analysis based on watching a video of yourself teaching.
- eye contact and facial expression
- perceiving and responding with empathy
- perceiving and responding with warmth
- perceiving and responding with respect
- territoriality and spatial arrangement
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- perceiving and responding in a non-threatening manner
- vocal intonation and inflexion
- gesturing
- perceiving and responding with concreteness
- using clarification skills
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Other students of the effective interpersonal communication skills of
teachers suggest that the following are also important:
- establishing co-operative relationships
- questioning techniques
- nonverbal components of exchanges (see above)
- listening skills
Ivey(1974) proposes four main groups of interpersonal communication skills:
attending behaviour
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has the components of eye contact and physical posture |
selective listening skills
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where teacher attends to emotional or feeling components and
key facial and bodily expressions of the pupils |
verbal following skills - paraphrasing
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the clear repetition of the essential content on another’s
comments |
interpretation
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analysis and restructuring of meanings so as to help the
pupil to learn alternative views of reality |
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