Chapter 3 Homework Communication to increase a teacher’s awareness of practices and interactions is the

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Chapter 3 – Communicating to Support Teacher Awareness

Summary

Communication to increase a teacher’s awareness of practices and interactions is the focus of this

chapter. Increasing effective listening, reflective feedback and exploring ways to resolve conflict

Outline

The chapter supports your growing capacity to

• mentor through dialogue;

• communicate for understanding and build common ground;

• pay attention to communication basics;

Communicating to

support

effective

disposition

build common

& culturally

responsive

understanding

OBSERVE

listen, seek

information

• use culturally responsive mentoring practice.

Learner outcomes

• Students will recognize the importance of building common and culturally responsive

understanding and communication choices

• Students will be able to identify ways to listen to understanding a teacher’s perspective

Suggested teaching activities

Opening Discussion – Introducing communication as a topic: Begin by emphasizing that

foundational to the topic of communication is understanding that any general strategy

suggestions must be used within the context of supporting an individual who is a cultural being

with a complex identity and a lifetime of experiences. In addition, the early childhood teacher is

working in a specific early childhood educational program context with patterns of

Culture influences communication style, ways of working with others and preferred ways

of learning. It is a guide for how to act and it influences our activities, beliefs and values. It

may be hard for any one person to describe their culture. However, it is clear when we

are made to feel comfortable or when we feel disrespected for our deep values or ways

Debrief the participant’s responses by connecting their comments to the following ideas and

keep the conversation going by asking more open-ended questions.

• Silence – Is it ok to interrupt? Is it best to wait?

• Time concepts – Should I get right to the point or should I wait and socialize first?

Summarize this opening discussion by repeating:

Encourage participants to keep an ongoing journal to respond to the question; What knowledge

or skills do I need in any roles I currently have working with other adults or early childhood

teachers?

Overview of a Cycle of Communication Strategies

Ask students to view this graphic framework as you briefly describe primary communication

Introduce the cycle and describe the three main stages. The stages involve communication to:

(1) observe, notice and respond (e.g., paying attention, acknowledging, paraphrasing, and

Reflect

use positive

feedback,

facilitate

reflection,

Observe

listen,

respond w/

empathy,

(3) apply, plan, model and modify by clarifying what you hope will happen (Have you tried

dividing the class up into smaller groups and asking another teacher to help with that

transition?). End with affirmations to motivate teachers to keep the learning going (I like

listening and learning about your observations).

Activities

1. Listening for understanding

Ask participants to get into small groups of three persons. One person should role play an early

childhood teacher, another a visiting early childhood education mentor and the third person

should observe and take notes only.

After another 5-10 minutes of this debriefing of the role play, the instructor may then choose to

gather the small groups into one large group. The instructor could ask participants to share one or

two effective strategies used, or could summarize the effective strategies she heard around the

room.

The activity could conclude by the instructor either asking participants to share now or write in a

journal later, what they want to do more of to support effective listening and responding to others

from this list:

Listening and Responding: Includes paying attention, acknowledging, paraphrasing, and

summarizing

Paraphrasing……..I am hearing that you tried to limit the materials in the house area…

In other words…

2. Promoting reflection

Discuss with participants the characteristics and functions of reflective comments as follows:

Reflective comments are open and non-judgmental. These comments help a teacher to see from

the child’s, parents’ or other teacher’s perspectives. In the final phase this insight will be

essential to make the most appropriate instructional or other program choices. Questions to

promote reflection and find meaning in everyday events include:

Can you talk more about that?

What have you tried before?

What evidence do you have about that?

What do you want to happen?”

Tell me about a time when you saw this…

Pair and share: Role-play being either a mentor or a teacher having a conversation. Imagine this

Purpose: Students will be able to explain how to use reflective comments in order to find

meaning in information gathered about problems in their work.

Extend: If you are using a particular observational tool, and your mentoring is focused on a

specific content area, the reflective comments activity could include connections to those

3. Instructive feedback

After observing, using open-ended questions and promoting reflection, it is time for instructive

feedback. Examples of a mentor’s instructive comments might be:

When you greeted Juanita and showed her where to put her coat, she seemed relieved and

happy. Since she is new to the school that made her feel like she belonged.

Instructive feedback is very time dependent.

Add a few ideas or suggestions after listening for understanding and using positive and reflective

feedback. Include an empathetic point of view. Mentor comments may also reinforce what is

already happening that is effective.

Discus the importance of the timing of instructive feedback by asking participants to imagine the

comments above were made before using open ended questions and promoting reflection. How

might instructive feedback have been received if given immediately?

Notice signs of burnout when communication strategies are not effective

Ask participants to reflect on when they noticed another early childhood teacher or adult they

When have you recognized that a teacher or colleague needed to take care of him or herself

Debrief the discussions by saying that it is an ethical duty for all early childhood professionals

Help participants consider the program context if many teachers are showing these signs at the

same time.

Health: Change in appetite, and other symptoms such as low energy, fatigue, upset stomach or

backache and loss of sleep.

Feelings: Irritability, anxiety, guilt, anger, or sadness. Lack of empathy and a general feeling of

being exhausted.

4. Effective dispositions for teaching

Divide the group into four smaller groups. Give each small group one of the scenarios in this

section to read together. Give the following directions:

Connect behaviors in the following four scenarios with the effective teaching dispositions

Variation in activity: Only ask the groups to identify effective dispositions for teaching. After

they do that share how these dispositions might support the “effective professional teaching

practices” aligned with them.

Personal dispositions noted in the scenario

Effective professional teaching practices

From: Predictable, reliable, persistent and

responsible

To: Implement research based practices

consistently

collaborative

and willing to examine contradictions in

practices and ideas

makes connections

From: Takes risks with support and willing to

hear other perspectives

To: Creative, flexible and intentional

A) Predictable, reliable, persistent and responsible – One Family Child Care Teacher

Mary is a family child care teacher who has a reputation with her enrolled families for beginning

each day with a renewed enthusiasm. She can be counted on to remember what parents told her

B) Caring, sensitive, responsive and collaborative

Rebecca is a preschool teacher who is known for her ability to teach social skills. When five-

year-old Hattie pushed her best friend down on the playground, Rebecca skillfully comforted the

C) Curious, notices gaps in understanding and willing to examine contradictions in

practices and ideas

Victor is a student intern from the local community college early childhood education program.

He comes to a Head Start preschool classroom every Thursday morning to observe the children

D) Takes risks with support and willing to hear other perspectives

Brenda reads her anecdotal notes about an accident that happened in her toddler room at

the weekly teacher’s meeting. Her question for her fellow teachers is how to stay open to

toddler ideas while keeping the space safe for them. She reads her notes,

5. Conclude with affirmations to support ongoing reflection

End your session by using one of these affirmations related to discussion experiences in this

session.

You can find your own way to do this….

I liked talking to you about…

It was very interesting to look at that issue today…

Ask the group if they end conversations with affirmations or if they have received an affirmation

recently. Debrief why affirmations are encouraging and motivate adults to keep doing the hard

work of learning and growing in their professional roles.

Purpose: Students will experience how affirmations tend to keep learning relationships strong

Presentation summary

End your session by modeling the importance of summarizing the key ideas explored. Share the

chapter 3 summary in your own words.

Journaling

1. Conflict and Collaboration: Ask participants to journal about times they have not been successful in

teaching an adult something. Give them these questions for their reflective writing assignment:

Is my suggestion the only way to do it or are there many right ways?

Is this best practice or how my family did it?

Debrief their responses by linking comments to ideas about conflict and collaborative problem solving.

2. Online challenges: Participants are having challenges working with other adults in an online

environment. Ask them to journal and refer to these questions to spark ideas for improving their online,

virtual or asynchronous interactions.

Is our communication interactive and responsive?

Do I reply frequently enough to foster a positive learning relationship?

Do I individualize my comments online just as I would in a face-to-face setting?

Again, debrief their responses by linking comments to ideas about conflict and collaborative problem

solving.

Extension: Consider seeking a guest speaker or online contributor who is very experienced in both the

use of technology and mentoring or teaching adults.