ETP111: Educators as Effective Communicators
4, 5, 6: Communication Strategies, Roles in Groups and Conflict Resolution
Reading: Arthur-Kelly et al (2006: 65)
· Arthur Kelly uses the term ‘interference’. This is another word for an idea we talked about in session 3: Communication Models. What’s the word?
Listening: some quotes
· Krishnamurti a communications scholar said in an interview on British T.V.
"Do not start a conversation before it has begun." What he meant by this was listen, listen with your mind, listen with your heart, just listen without agenda.
· From the film, Pulp Fiction:
‘Are you listening or are you just waiting to speak?’
How do you know when you’ve been listening to?
How do you feel when you’re not listening to?
Scan Reading Collaborative Task
Choose one of the sections below. Scan read it, to find two things: What is the Strategy? What re the steps to using it? Share your summary with the group
1. Reading: Arthur-Kelly et al (2006: 71-75): Active Listening (2 people)
2. Reading: Arthur-Kelly et al (2006: 75-76): Open Questioning
3. Reading: Arthur-Kelly et al (2006: 76-77): Assertive I-Messages
4. Reading: Arthur-Kelly et al (2006: 77-79): Negotiating a Solution
Strategy / What is it? / What are the steps/examples?Active Listening
Open Questioning
I-Messaged
Negotiation
A: Assertiveness: as distinct from aggressiveness or passivity
(material from ETL111 textbook, Communicating for Professionals, Mohan et al, 2008)
· Express honest feelings comfortably
· Exercise your personal rights without denying the rights of others
Scoring on next page.
Three-Part “I” assertive messages
Effective because often the other person has not real idea of the effects of their behaviour or requests on us.
1. Description of specific behaviour
2. Description of your specific feelings
3. Description of tangible effects on your of the specific behaviour
‘When you ask me to take on another job with a tight deadline, I feel pressurised because I don’t have the adequate time to do the new job properly and carry out the other work I have to do.’ (circle parts 1,2,3)
Extending the message with
4. Clear statement about a) solution, b) options, c) possible consequences.
‘I would like to be able to talk about the problem with you. Options might be to reschedule my other work or train more staff. Then we could be more productive and less stressed.’
Hypotheticals:
In groups, choose a situation and write passive/submissive, aggressive and assertive response for it
· Your mentor has said they’ll give you some important lesson planning/curriculum resources, but it’s been a week and they’ve still not got around to it.
· Your mentor says something about your work that you feel is unfair
· Your mentor is continually late for your meetings
· A colleague of your mentor repeatedly drops by to chat when you’re in conference with them
· Create your own scenario . . .
B: Dealing Positively with Criticism: 6 options
Using assertiveness helps us maintain self-esteeem, which is fundamental to effective communication:
1. Accept it: acknowledge the feedback/criticism and move on: don’t apologise or defend yourself
2. Disagree with it: focus on specific aspects of the feedback, try to explain why you think it does not fit and check the information on which the feedback was based.
3. Set limits with the person who’s giving the criticism: say how you wish to be treated
4. ‘Fog’ away the negative feedback or criticism: don’t agree or disagree but say ‘You may be right,’ ‘I can see how you think that’ and move on.
5. Delay your response: ask for time to respond if you feel surprised, confused or disappointed by the feedback.
6. Prompt and paraphrase: ask for more criticism or more details: works if the criticism is informative rather than manipulative in purpose.
Hypothetical:
In groups, come up with a common situation when you have to deal with criticism from your mentor. Use the 6 types of responses above to devise alternative assertive responses to the situation
C: Improving Listening Skills
Causes of ineffective listening
· Assuming a topic will be boring
· Allowing the speaker’s voice/mannerisms to overpower the message
· Poor concentration
· Poor comprehension
· Passive listening
· Poor listening behaviours: pre-judging, jumping to conclusions, interrupting, daydreaming, faking attention, thinking of what to say next, tuning out to the difficult material, trying to remember everything, listening only for facts, not main point, trying to write it all down, ignoring tone/body language.
Which of these poor listening behaviours are you most prone to generally? Most prone to in a mentor discussion?
Features of Active Listening
· Attentive body language and eye contact
· Encouraging words/phrases
· Non threatening open and closed questions to clarify
· Paraphrasing and summarising
· Reflecting feelings
Active Listening Exercise:
in groups of three: speaker, listener and observer. Observer looks for the techniques/features above in the listener, while observing the speaker talks about a topic of interest or concern to them. The speaker talks about a topic of interest or concern to him or her for two to three minutes. The listener practises active listening by using the techniques above.
At the end of the speaker’s message the observer will give feedback to the listener. Then rotate the roles
Final discussion:
· Did the speakers think they were really listened to? Why? Why not?
· Were the speakers ever diverted from what they were about to say? Why/not?
· Were the listeners’ tasks easy or difficult?
· What have the listeners learned from the exercise?
· In the observers’ opinions, did the listeners summarise accurately?
· How did you feel in your role(s)?
Roles in Groups
· Do your recognise the role you play in any of these situations?
· What about the other people in your group?
Task-Oriented Roles / Researchers Benne and Sheats11 identified several roles which relate to the completion of the group's task:· Initiator-contributor: Generates new ideas.
· Information-seeker: Asks for information about the task.
· Opinion-seeker: Asks for the input from the group about its values.
· Information-giver: Offers facts or generalization to the group.
· Opinion-giver: States his or her beliefs about a group issue.
· Elaborator: Explains ideas within the group, offers examples to clarify ideas.
· Coordinator: Shows the relationships between ideas.
· Orienter: Shifts the direction of the group's discussion.
· Evaluator-critic: Measures group's actions against some objective standard.
· Energizer: Stimulates the group to a higher level of activity.
· Procedural-technician: Performs logistical functions for the group.
· Recorder: Keeps a record of group actions.
Social Roles / Groups also have members who play certain social roles:
· Encourager: Praises the ideas of others.
· Harmonizer: Mediates differences between group members.
· Compromiser: Moves group to another position that is favored by all group members.
· Gatekeeper/expediter: Keeps communication channels open.
· Standard Setter: Suggests standards or criteria for the group to achieve.
· Group observer: Keeps records of group activities and uses this information to offer feedback to the group.
· Follower: Goes along with the group and accepts the group's ideas.
Individualistic Roles / These roles place the group member above the group and are destructive to the group.
· Aggressor: Attacks other group members, deflates the status of others, and other aggressive behavior.
· Blocker: Resists movement by the group.
· Recognition seeker: Calls attention to himself or herself.
· Self-confessor: Seeks to disclose nongroup related feelings or opinions.
· Dominator: Asserts control over the group by manipulating the other group members.
· Help seeker: Tries to gain the sympathy of the group.
· Special interest pleader: Uses stereotypes to assert his or her own prejudices.
link.
Are groups and teams the same thing?
People in groups: Know each other, share common interests, interact and influence each other, achieve goals be they social or other and may be spontaneous or formal and serve a more functional role from which the outcomes may be more widely based such as a math committee or science working party.
People in teams: Have "designated accountability" that reflect the organisational goals and visions. Teams have interconnected efforts in terms of shared leadership, shared responsibility and mutual support.
Team Discussions and 3 Perceptual Positions
This is an interesting one to bear in mind, esp. when a group discussion seems to be going no-where
Position 1: ‘I’: where are normally at: our own responses and views to others
Position 2: ‘You’: putting ourselves in the shoes of the other person (links to active listening), paraphrasing their view
Position 3: ‘We’: a helicopter position, making an observation about the group’s situation on the discussion as a whole
If good team work is built upon a solid foundation, then when conflict arises, as inevitably happens, there will already be an established relationship. There will be some knowledge of team members, some trust and hopefully some respect.
Conflict Resolution – Older models
Older models sought for win-win solutions and although these can be achieved, it may be that someone is left to compromise and therefore still harbours lingering resentment.
Win-win Solutions
Here is a possible scenario when you are staging a community event: The team has been asked to take the students to a local theme park, but only two members can accompany them because there is no room in the bus. However there are four people really keen to be involved.
The compromise could constitute a third side solution because it is inventive and takes account of everyone’s needs.
Conflict Resolution - The third side
There is a new approach to conflict resolution which encourages looking for creative solutions to conflicts. The third side approach looks at the influence of conflict not only on the individuals involved but on the community as a whole - an important aspect of the culminating assessment for this unit.
Look at the web site for greater detail: http://www.thirdside.org/
Roles that people take on have become an important part of the third side approach.
Conflict Resolution - Real Justice Real justice is never that simple complex, intricate.
Governed by neither will nor wishing
· it does not start with the victim,
· it does not end with the attacker,
· it does not reveal itself easily.
No matter its manifestation like it or not, her task is this:
· The scales must balance
(Tim Hamilton From The Fool to The World Stars Calling Press Melbourne VIC)
Real justice or restorative justice is an approach that has evolved from the criminal justice system as a way for victims and their families to resolve issues and for perpetrators to face up to the consequences of their actions. In schools it is being used as a way to resolve conflict through conferencing.
Here are some questions from the SaferSanerSchools project that can help shape a conference.
Restorative justice questions
When things go wrong:
1. What happened?
2. What were you thinking of at the time?
3. What have you thought about since?
4. Who has been affected by what you have done? In what way?
5. What do you think you need to do to make things right?
When someone has been hurt:
1. What did you think when you realised what had happened?
2. What impact has this incident had on you and others?
3. What has been the hardest thing for you?
4. What do you think needs to happen to make things right?
These questions are designed not to apportion blame. They avoid why questions, because often it is difficult for younger people, far less adults, to articulate why they have done something. Here the focus remains on looking for solutions - looking for ways to resolve the conflict.
Conflict resolution in classrooms: Dimensions of Learning: Habits of Mind
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