FOE1000 Professional Communication in Education Course orientation, Communication

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FOE1000Professional Communication in
EducationCourse orientation, Communication
Language

• Peter Albion

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Course orientation
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Professional communication

• Immediate application to university
• Longer term benefits to work
• Core expectations
• Communications in the course will reflect
  professional standards
• Oral and written language
• Courtesy and ethics

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Some key facts about FOE1000

• Over 500 students enrolled
• Springfield, Toowoomba Fraser Coast campuses
  EXT
• Teaching mode
• 1.5 hour lecture
• 1 hour tutorial
• StudyDesk

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Course team

• Peter Albion (Examiner)
• Mary-Anne Fleming (Moderator)
• Penny Green (Fraser Coast)
• Carmen Mills Agli Zavros (Springfield)
• Peter Evans, Janice Jones, Julia McLendon
  (Toowoomba)
• Ron Pauley (Library) other guests

See course web site (via StudyDesk) for details
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Course resources

• Text book
• Mohan, T., McGregor, H., Saunders, S., Archee,
  R. (2004). Communicating as professionals.
  Southbank, Vic Thomson.
• Web site
• StudyDesk
• USQConnect ID and password
• Direct link
• http//www.usq.edu.au/course/material/foe1000/
• Email notices
• Check regularly

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Lectures

• Access
• Fraser Coast, Mon 1100 - 1230
• Springfield, Wed 200 - 330
• Toowoomba Wed 1600 - 1730, H102
• EXT recordings on web site
• Content
• Key course material
• Assessment processes
• ICT techniques demonstrations

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Tutorials

• Activities related to lectures assessment
• Submit and collect tasks
• Unavoidable absence (public holiday, illness)
• Attend another class (ask the tutor)

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Assessment

• Three elements
• 8 tutorial tasks (40)
• Most contribute to major assignment
• Paper (40) 1000 words due 17 May
• Examination (20)
• 100 multiple choice items
• Based on text and lectures
• Questions from weekly quiz (StudyDesk)

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Tasks

• Letter Résumé
• APA referencing (StudyDesk)
• Proposal for position paper
• Information literacy skills (StudyDesk)
• Paragraph writing
• Email communication
• Communicating with numbers (StudyDesk)
• Presentation and web page

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Weekly routine

• Complete assigned reading
• Attend lecture (or listen for EXT)
• Complete online quiz
• Complete assessment task(s) as required
• Prepare for attend tutorial
• Submit and/or collect task as required
• Work toward assignment and exam

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Additional sources of support

• Faculty campus orientation program
• Link from course home page
• LTSU Academic Learning Support
• http//www.usq.edu.au/ltsu/alsonline/
• Library
• Student Services
• http//www.usq.edu.au/studentservices

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Communication theory and professional practice

• Forms of professional communication

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What is the theory of communication?

• Theory a coherent group of general propositions
  used as principles of explanation for a class of
  phenomena.
• Macquarie Dictionary (1992)

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..communication

• The act or fact of communicating, transmission
  the imparting or interchange of thoughts,
  opinions, or information by speech, writing or
  signs.
• To communicate 1. to give to another as a
  partaker impart, transmit 2. To impart
  knowledge of, make known 3. To convey ones
  feelings, thoughts etc successfully to others.
• Macquarie Dictionary (1992)

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Professional communication

• All professions involve communication
• Teachers communicate with colleagues, employer,
  students, parents, administrative staff, aides,
  support staff, special interest groups,
  researchers and media.
• Professionals need to
• Get technical details correct
• Convey ideas clearly and accurately
• Allow for the limitations of the message receiver
• Plan for gaps in understanding between parties

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Communication theories help the professional to

• Choose appropriate channels of communication
• Narrow the communication gap between professional
  and audience
• Understand cultural differences in communication
• Understand different interpretations of the same
  message

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Different views of communication

• The transmission of messages
• Reciprocal creation of meaning

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Some uses of the word communication (1)

• Communication with the advance party has been
  cut off for four days.
• I cant seem to communicate with my patient. Im
  sure shes not taking the medication I prescribed
  last week.
• There was good communication among the group,
  despite our different backgrounds. In three hours
  we had planned a new approach to the project.
  Everybody was ready to back it.

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Some uses of the word communication (2)

• I simply cant communicate with my staff any
  more nobody wants to do any work.
• Communication between the old and the young is
  as bad now as it ever was.
• Jean is a resourceful, pleasant and helpful
  executive, but when she writes a letter, memo or
  report, her style is overformal and even brusque.
  She just cant communicate in writing with her
  junior staff.

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Purpose in communicating

• Be clear about your reason for communicating
• Organise to achieve your purpose
• Be clear about your meaning
• Use media to the best advantage
• Frame the message to suit receivers
• Enable receivers to respond

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The transmission model of communication

• Source and receiver
• Message
• Medium/channel
• Feedback

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Shannon Weaver
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Serial communication
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The transaction model of communication

• Meanings are in people, not in words
• Objective and subjective reality
• Personal construction of reality
• Social construction of reality
• Frames of reference

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Dimensions of communication

• Intrapersonal communication
• Interpersonal communication
• Group communication
• Public communication
• Intercultural communication
• Mediated communication

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Language and communication practice
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Channels of language communication

• Speech
• Relies on voice and hearing
• Modified by intonation gesture
• Writing
• Visual representation of language
• More deliberate and less immediate
• Signing
• Visual alternative to speech

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Using speech and writing in persuasion

• Proximity of the audience vs availability of text
• Conveying tone
• Retaining complex arguments
• Shared qualities
• Complex media

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Language and thought

• Linguistic determinism
• language determines our perception of the world
• Linguistic relativity
• language affects our perception of the world

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Language as game

• Useful to view language as a game
• Rules
• Norms
• Principles
• Suggests ways to improve performance

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Rules of language

• Word knowledge
• Clear speech
• Correct grammar
• Acceptable spelling

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Norms of language

• Appropriate words for a context
• Courtesy in conversation
• Tone appropriate to reader
• Telling the truth

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Principles of language

• Firm, confident speech
• Understanding the audience
• Writing which convinces and conveys sincerity
• Strong argument, well illustrated
• Memorable and impressive use of language and style

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Language and meaning

• The meanings of meaning
• New words for new meanings
• Technical terminology, jargon and slang

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Denotation and connotation

• Denotation
• literal meanings of a word
• Connotation
• Subjective meanings reflecting
• Culture
• Age groups
• Work group
• Personal background and experience

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Use and misuse of language

• Euphemism
• inoffensive words to cover unpleasant actions
• Doublespeak
• euphemisms to cover horrendous crimes or
  political hypocrisy

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Non-discriminatory language

• Language which avoids
• Racism
• Sexism
• Ageism
• Ethnocentrism
• Anti-Semitism
• Homophobia

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Week 1 - Making a start

• Reading
• Mohan et al. Chapters 1 2
• Online quiz
• 2 week window for access
• Tutorials are meeting
• No assessment tasks due until week 2