Effective Communication
and Instructional
Techniques
Dr. Eli Collins-Brown
AET520 Instructional Strategies in Adult Education and
Training
University of Phoenix
Teacher/trainer as Facilitator
Shift from knowledge disseminator to facilitator
Need communication, interpersonal and group
skills
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Awareness of self and others
Knowledge of own culture and other’s
Analyze own feelings
Understand power of role modeling
Sense of ethics
Determine degree of responsibility for others and
yourself
Good communication skills send clear messages
in a sensitive way
Components of Effective
Communication
 Oral Communication
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Audibility
Clarity
Enunciation
Variation and emphasis
Language usage
Mannerisms
Components of Effective
Communication
 Nonverbal Communication
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Facial Expression
Movement
Gestures
Mannerisms
Eye contact
Silence
Physical contact
Listening Skills
Put all of your energy into listening
Be aware of your own filters when listening
Do not argue mentally
Restrain you impulse to immediately answer questions
When in doubt about whether to list or to speak, keep
listening
Do not assume that you have to do anything but listen
Work at listening
Listen generously with a willingness to be influenced
Interpersonal Skills
Understanding others
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Paraphrasing
Perception Checking
Being Understood by Others
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Feeling Description
Behavior Description
Paraphrasing
Message received is the same as was
intended by speaker
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Ensures understanding of information, ideas,
and suggestions of others
Guidelines
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Be non-judgmental
Put the statement into your own words
Be attentive, interested and open to ideas
Listen for the feeling behind the words
Perception Checking
Used to ensure that you are interpreting
another person’s feelings correctly
Direct checking – what I am hearing, is
that correct?
Indirect checking – listen more carefully,
attention to non-verbal cues
Being Understood
Feelings Description – this is how I feel
Behavior Description – you did this so I
responded this way
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What we think we observed
Describe behaviors so others know what you
observed and are responding to
Assessment and Evaluation
Used by teachers to better understand
students
discover abilities, interests and motivations
Assessment – make judgments about
student progress and teacher’s instruction
Evaluation – make judgments about
achievement of learning objectives or on
the value or effectiveness of a program
Summative Assessment
Learner’s master of specific course material
Comparing learning achievement to reference
group or performance criteria
Determine effectiveness of instructional activities
Course grades
Learner placement
Accountability for learning
Diagnostics about strengths and weakness in
students’ performance
Data on achievement of departments or school
performance
Creating Effective Summative
Assessments
Must target and tie back to instructional
objectives
Most accurate when they aggregate
information from a number of sources
Relative weighting of various sources
Comprehensive measure of overall
knowledge, skill, or performance related to
a unit of instruction
Good Assessments
Validity
Reliability
Authenticity
Formative Assessment
Before or during instruction
Plan or make adjustments in instruction
Identify students who are struggling
Evaluation
Criterion-referenced – based on absolute
criterion (achieve 80% or higher, etc.)
Norm-referenced – based on comparison
of others’ performance (standardized
tests)
Recap
Effective teachers need more than just
knowledge; they need good
communication, interpersonal and listening
skills
Assessment and Evaluation measure how
well a student is doing and the
effectiveness of a set of instructional
activities