Effective Communication

Effective Communication

Being an effective communicator is a key capability for the workplaces of the future. This page introduces this theme and demonstrates different directions it can be taken in. New for Autumn 2020 are a series of lesson ideas that tackle the additional obstacles students might face in the context of everything 2020 has thrown at us. All topics clearly state learning objectives and multiple themes targetted helpful for curriculum planning.

Starting with the theme

Similarly to Thinking Processes, Effective Communication is the key to a student getting the most out of their IBCP experience. The guide suggests the following topics and sub-topics that could be explored in this theme.

This page contextualises Effective Communication as a theme, addressing the Why? and how it fits into the PPS Learning Objectives. More importantly, it introduces the theme to students in a way that allows them to build their understanding with you as well as transfer into other interesting areas. We ask 'what is Effective Communication in the 2020s?' and aligning this theme with the PPS objective. A lesson plan introduces Effective Communication with how we can communicate creative thinking and give feedback. Our thinking builds from there as we consider how we develop Effective Communication over the course and employ empathy.

Explore further ...

3.1 Introduction to Interpersonal Skills

Introduction to interpersonal communication skillsInterpersonal skills are all about communicating and integrating well with others. This is certainly a skill that we continue to develop all our lives;...

3.3 Interviews and the ethical employee

Interview skillsThe notion of an interview can be a scary prospect because it symbolises a step into the unknown and very much about risk-taking. At the heart of any interview scenario is being able to...

Effective communication in professional settings.

How does how I communicate matter?
Individually, consider what you think it means to communicate well in the workplace and share these ideas with the class.
Now watch this video and find the 5 key areas that are discussed as essential to working in professional settings.
Jigsaw reading: Now let's divide up the key areas and allocate expert groups. Watch the video again and make detailed notes for your group. What were your original ideas for effective communication and new suggestions have you incorporated from the video.

Present your ideas. 

This is a comprehensive analysis from Study Hall; in under 10 minutes, 5 key traits of effective communication in the workplace are analysed: 1) verbal communication 2) communication in a team structure 3) decision-making and problem solving 4) planning, organising and prioritising and 5) persuasion.

2:25 Verbal communication
3:16 Communication in a team structure
4:22 Decision-making and problem solving
6:28 Planning, organizing and prioritizing
7:33 Persuasion

Transcript:

Riddle me this: what do real estate, appraisers, dermatologists, forest rangers, and preschool teachers all have in common? They all have to communicate effectively to be good at their jobs.

Come on, what did you think the answer would be in a video about communication in the workplace?

Communication is actually something all jobs have in common. I'm not exaggerating.

No matter what we do, we need to be able to do things like talk with a customer in a respectful way,

or compose an email conveying bad news tactfully or make a persuasive recommendation or presentation. That's why having even one communication course under your belt  is an incredible asset for every career path. So dust off your business casual wear.

Today we're going to work. I'm Cassandra Ryder, and this is Study Hall: Intro to Human Communication.

Studying things like robotics, space exploration, or examining the courtship and politics of "Love Island" sound cool and worthwhile, but according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, a lot of what employers want actually comes back to communication. So in this episode, we'll look at five communication skills that are relevant to employers for two reasons.

First, knowing what these skills are helps us identify what we're already good at and what areas we need more practice in. And second, being able to recognize and discuss specific skills help us come up with powerful examples to share with employers about our own experience or assess them in someone else.

Think about it.

Let's say we're deciding between two real estate agents to help us buy our first home.

Since they make a commission off the transaction we're kind of hiring them for a job. The first person says, I'm really good at communication. The second one says, I am reachable via text message all the time and I respond within a half hour.

I use a questionnaire that I work through with you to make sure I'm helping you find every house that fits your goals.

I use a database online to help you keep track of the homes you've considered and anything we've learned together about them.

One person is making a general claim and they might have a different definition of good at communication than we do. The other is making some specific claims that we could hold them to. Specific communication skills should inspire a lot more confidence.

So whether we're interviewing for a new job or trying to grow in an existing role, when we want some specific skills to talk about, here are some to focus on.

Verbal communication

The first communication skill employers are looking for is the ability to communicate verbally with people inside and outside the organization. One challenge in many workplaces is there are different audiences that require different communication strategies, like we need to be clear and forthcoming with coworkers and we need to be able to talk to clients in a way that's both truthful and doesn't make our company look bad. With each audience, we must be able to speak clearly and listen carefully in ways that are appropriate for that relationship, but that's easier said than done.

Many people are shy about speaking directly to people but we can improve our ability to communicate effectively without becoming some wildly outgoing person.We can ask friends to help us practice. We can take on volunteer or club roles that involve speaking in front of a group.The goal isn't to change our personality but instead to develop our ability to speak effectively so this skill is ready when we need it in the workplace.

Communication in a team structure.
The second communication skill employers are seeking most is the ability to communicate in a team structure. We all probably got a taste of this in school when working on a dreaded group project, which are dreaded in part because communicating with peers can be hard, and in some ways the workplace is like a constant group project. Sure, an employee can choose to focus on their own role and ignore how colleagues do or don't do their work but managers are going to be far more impressed by an employee who can do their own work and communicate in a way that helps their whole team work better.

For instance, Jean notices that delays in an app development project are constantly happening because his teammate Rudy doesn't check his emails very often and doesn't get Jean's requests to debug new code.

Jean isn't technically responsible for Rudy and could just keep sending emails but Jean knows that Rudy always responds to direct messages right away, with emojis even.

So Jean asks Rudy if he'd prefer to change the process and get debugging requests via Slack instead of via email. Rudy agrees and the team gets their work done faster all thanks to effective communication.

Decision-making and problem solving

In fact, the ability to communicate in a team structure ties into the next skill employers find valuable, which is communicating to make decisions and solve problems. Actually making decisions and solving problems are their own skillsets but they depend on communication.

We need to ask for the information and resources that will help us solve the problem. Then we have to share a solution in a way that gets others on board.

Let's see how this might play out in a team setting.

Layla is the residents director in charge of a team of resident assistance at a university dormitory.

The RAs make a lot of their decisions together and because there are many personalities on the team, Layla must communicate clearly to make sure all the RAs learn what they need to do in order to keep residents safe and maintain a supportive, respectful community. And when you know, a recent viable video trend has made it popular to cut open a down pillow and throw it out a window, then take a reaction video as the people below are showered with feathers. While mostly harmless, this trend has created a lot of additional cleanup for the janitorial staff.

Some RAs want to prohibit students from making these pillow videos but two RAs who are passionate about free speech believe that a blanket ban on pillow videos is too severe, especially if they'll have to enforce consequences for those who make a pillow video. One RA in Layla's team suggests that instead of banning the videos, they ban the feather litter.

This basically says that the problem is the mess and that leaving the mess will get a resident in trouble. While Layla also has her own reservations about coming down hard on a trend that's likely to go away soon, she likes the idea.

She uses her own communication skills to present to her team a more substantial littering and mess rule that says, if residents create extra work for the janitorial staff, they can get in trouble. Layla makes the case that this rule helps them fulfil their goals of maintaining a supportive, respectful community.

This rule will be a pretty effective deterrent against dorm messiness, feathers or otherwise, but it won't seem like harsh condemnation either. A real win-win.

Now in many careers, viral video trends aren't likely to create issues that demand decision making.

Even so, we can see how Layla listened to her team's concerns and suggestions.

Then came up with and persuasively presented a solution that met important goals like ensuring that the dorm is a respectful environment.

Planning, organizing and prioritizing

And this reflects that Layla has another important workplace skill, the ability to plan, organize, and prioritize work.

Layla didn't scramble to call an emergency meeting when she heard that feathers were showering unsuspecting passersby.

She regularly holds meetings that are a safe space for discussion and have a set structure that allows Ras to discuss their concerns. This not only gets important work done, it also shows Layla's RAs the value of having a plan, being organized, and focusing on priorities.

Layla modeled the effective practices of holding regular meetings, conducting those meetings in an orderly fashion, listening carefully, providing feedback, and staying on task to make sure they resolve issues.

But whether you're planning, organizing, and prioritizing for a team or just yourself this is a skill that develops with practice. So start small.

Maybe that's creating a personal workflow to brainstorm, plan, write, and edit press releases in a timely manner.

Or it could be a process for requesting office supplies so the office manager doesn't spend half his week figuring out what people need. Basically, organization and predictable processes save time and help people get things done.

Persuasion

Finally, the ability to persuade others is prized by employers, and we've already mentioned it a few times throughout the other four skills.

Of course, people who work in sales need to be good at communicating the appealing features of their product, but in many jobs, we'll be doing this kind of persuasion, even if we aren't directly involved in sales. In many cases, it's about seeing how our workplace's solutions, products, or services fit a client's needs and being alert for opportunities to persuade.

Like maybe we just finished up a graphic design project with a new client.

If our client mentions needing new promotional posters too, our employer would love it if we could bring additional work to our company by continuing the conversation.

Sure, referring a client to another service our company offers isn't technically in our job description but being persuasive in ways that benefit our employers, colleagues, and clients makes us valuable to them.

Conclusion

We study communication for a lot of reasons but these five skills are some of the ways that being competent communicators can make our workplaces function better.

Workplaces are one of the areas where we get to turn our communication skills into really cool visible outcomes, long-term collaborative solutions for clients, great relationships with bosses, and a growing ability to manage and lead others.

While we don't have to be top-notch at all of these skills, developing them when we get the chance can make our daily life at work better and more effective.

And being a great communicator is a powerful asset that we can bring to any line of work.

Thanks for watching Study Hall: Intro to Human Communication which is part of the Study Hall Project, a partnership between ASU and Crash Course.

Social media: wellbeing and mental health

The TED talk Peachy Liv, How to protect your mental well-being online - by a GenZer provides a provocation on the role young people play in the future of social media and why taking a break from it can be a good reflective move.

Perspective

'What's your personal mission for being on social media, and what will you do to fight for it? I would love to see more young people becoming catalysts of change by harnessing the power of social media- and do so not by sacrificing our mental health but by being equipped with self-sustaining tools and engaging on platforms that are nurturing and strengthening for individuals and our world'.

Peachy Liv, How to protect your mental well-being online - by a GenZer, Ted Talks.

What do you think of Peachy Liv's suggestions?

'... In the end, for me, when I took a break from social media, it helped me to really reflect on why I do this, why I use online tools to educate and engage my peers. And I realised my motivation used to be extrinsic, wanting people to be helped and be inspired. I hadn't really meant to, but by posting content for other people, I was depending my sense of impact and even self-worth to what other people thought or said about me. But now I've realised my motivation is and should always be intrinsic, wanting to try my best in sharing what I've learned because it gives me fulfillment and purpose. There is a difference. Extrinsic motivations depend on results that are out of our control while intrinsic motivations depend on things we could do that are under our control. We will be less likely to take external feedback to hear if we do things online out of intrinsic motivations. What we do online and offline, we should do simply because we believe it is the right thing to do'.

Pick out a word, phrase or sentence that you relate to here. Reflect on this in your journal and what you think about your social media use

Developing the course with students

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION: Individual, pair, group work and real world relevance

Julian Treasure's Ted Talk from 2013: How to talk so people will listen.

This is an interesting talk to use to introduce students to the idea of effective communication and listening. It can easily be divided into three talks: the mistakes people make, the system you should use and how to use your voice.

'The human voice: It's the instrument we all play. It's the most powerful sound in the world, probably. It's the only one that can start a war or say "I love you." And yet many people have the experience that when they speak, people don't listen to them. And why is that? How can we speak powerfully to make change in the world?'

 Step 1. Personal reflection on communication habits

Where do I stand? Consider Julian Treasure's words paraphrased below about the 7 bad habits that make people hard to listen to. Which aspects do you most associate with yourself? Assess each one and then choose four you think might play any role in the way you communicate.
'First, gossip. Speaking ill of somebody who's not present. Not a nice habit ...

Second, judging .... it's very hard to listen to somebody if you know that you're being judged and found wanting at the same time. 

Third, negativity ...

Complaining [which] is a viral misery. It's not spreading sunshine and lightness in the world.

Blamethrowing .... [the people who] pass it on to everybody else and don't take responsibility for their actions ...

Exaggeration. It demeans our language, actually, sometimes ... this exaggeration becomes lying, and we don't want to listen to people we know are lying to us. 

And Dogmatism. The confusion of facts with opinions. When those two things get conflated, somebody is bombarding you with their opinions as if they were true. It's difficult to listen to that'. 

Step 2: Discuss the four foundations of the HAIL system below which Julian Treasure sees as essential to be an effective communicator: Place Honesty, Authenticity, Integrity and Love in order, starting with most important. As a class which aspect do you rate as most important?

The H, honesty, of course, being true in what you say, being straight and clear. The A is authenticity, just being yourself. A friend of mine described it as standing in your own truth, which I think is a lovely way to put it. The I is integrity, being your word, actually doing what you say, and being somebody people can trust. And the L is love. I don't mean romantic love, but I do mean wishing people well, for two reasons. First of all, I think absolute honesty may not be what we want. I mean, my goodness, you look ugly this morning. Perhaps that's not necessary. Tempered with love, of course, honesty is a great thing. But also, if you're really wishing somebody well, it's very hard to judge them at the same time. I'm not even sure you can do those two things simultaneously. So hail.

  Step 3: Register, Timbre, Prosodity, Pace, Pitch, Volume ...

Consider Barrack Obama's keynote speech to 3 minutes 10 at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004; widely seen as fundamental in shaping his future as the President of the United States.
a) What do you notice about the way he speaks? Look at the definitions of Register, Timbre, Prosodity, Pace, Pitch and Volume and reflect on how he used these to deliver his speech. 
b) Watch from 3 minutes 10. What else does Obama use to be an effective speaker?

 

Definitions of key words associated with speech
RegisterA vocal register is a range of tones in the human voice produced by a particular vibratory pattern of the vocal folds. eg falsetto, baritone
TimbreThe quality of a sound made by a particular voice or musical instrument
Prosoditythe rhythm and melody of the voice, including intonation, stress, and pauses. Prosody can provide cues to lexical meaning.
PaceThe speed at which someone speaks, eg the speed of response in an argument
PitchThe relative highness or lowness of a tone as perceived by the ear
VolumeThe perceived loudness of the speaker. Loudness is what the audience actually perceives and it correlates with the physical strength (amplitude)
Supporting Powerpoint for INTRODUCING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
Approaching conversations about Effective Communication

Students find it hard to analyse their own communication habits and find it especially hard to be positive about them. For these early discussions it could be wise to look to other people for good communication habits - they do not have to look too far and consider teachers who they feel communicate particularly well. The exercises on this page gradually build from self reflection, assessment to peer assessment as often our perceptions of ourselves do not match others' perceptions of us and can be very enlightening.

Discussions here might also be given further depth by considering Empathy. In Intercultural Understanding this is explored in more detail but it might be a timely place to consider how we communicate warmth and understanding.  A summary of the page is included here.

What is Empathy? Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference;  that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. Developing empathetic skills enables us to understand different cultures.

How do we show empathy?

E - Eye gaze. Do we seek or avoid eye contact?
M - Muscles of facial expression. Are we conscious of the facial expressions we use or how we respond to the facial expressions we use or how we respond to the facial expressions we are faced with?
P - Posture. Notice the other person's posture - is it open or closed? How do you respond to that?
A - Affect - expressed emotion. Try labeling the other person's expressed emotions - are they upset, happy, sad...?
T - Tone of voice. Listen to their tone of voice... what does this tell you?
H - Hearing the whole person; understanding the context in which others live. Do not judge and take things at face value.
Y - Your response - what you express is likely to reciprocated. How can we express empathy by reflecting their E.M.P.A.T.H...?

Quick ideas: Plenaries and reflections

Plenaries and reflections can be utilised at any time through a lesson for all sorts of reasons from considering the work that has just been done, making plans for the future or even changing the dynamic of a class that has got rather heated from a debate. It is all part of letting PPS take you in directions that really inspire, challenge and motivate students. As ever, educators often find activities of this type can be anything from 5 minute distractions to a full series of lessons.
Active or Affective Listening

To really use a new skill across all areas of the course, work and personal relationships, you have to explicitly put it into practice and reflect on how it felt to utilise it and the possible impact it might have in the future.

Are you listening?
a) In pairs, take turns to tell each other an experience you had when you found yourself in an argument or conflct with someone. Then discuss how did you show you were listening to each other?
b) Look at the following table which gives examples of active listening techniques. Do you need any clarification on any of the terms? Which ones do you think you used?
c) Now try part a) again and this time try and use two specific techniques explicitly.
d) Discuss with your partner what impact you feel this had.

Teacher notes with expanded definitions 

The following information has been adapted from an article in Psychology Today

Affective Listening Skills Overview – Psychology Today .com 

Emotional labeling: By identifying a person’s emotions, they feel validated and  heard, not minimized. People often act with emotions rather than from a more  cognitive perspective. By labeling and acknowledging emotions, it helps to restore  balance.  

Para-phrasing: Includes repeating what a person has said in your own words in a  much shorter format while also making sure not to minimize what the person has  experienced.  

Reflecting and mirroring: When someone is finished speaking, reflecting and  mirroring is shorter option compared to paraphrasing. It includes repeating the last  words the person said. For example, If the person ends a conversation by saying,  “…and this really made me angry,” you could say, “It really made you angry.”  

Effective pauses and silence: Part of listening includes pausing or being silent  before taking your turn to speak. Also known as dynamic inactivity, silence allows the  other person to continue speaking while also pausing prior to help calm a situation.  Calming the situation is essential as it can move the person from reacting based on  emotion to a more rational, cognitive space.  

“I” messages: Counteract statements made by the person that serve as obstacles  to collaboration. Active listening (AL) statements include: “I feel___ when you ___  because ___.” AL provides a “timeout” by letting the other person know you are  trying to work together. It is important to be mindful of your tone to ensure that is not  perceived as aggressive or argumentative.  

Open-ended questions: Asking open-ended questions provides opportunities for  the person to speak longer and thus can help diffuse tension and provide valuable  information, insight and perspective of the situation.  

Minimal encouragers: Simple verbal actions such as “mmm,” “okay,” and “I see,”  and nonverbal gestures such as head nodding establish the building of rapport with  the person by subtly inviting the person to continue speaking.  

Summarize: An extended version of paraphrasing, summarizing identifies  everything the person has said including the elements important to the person. It  acknowledges the person’s emotions. Summarizing provides validation for the  person who has now been heard and understood. It is important to summarize as it  can bring a sense of relief and reduce reactions that are dictated by emotions. 

  Active Listening Skills

 Why active listening is important, and how to do it. Posted Jun2,  2020

“You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time." —M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled.

 Active listening is a way of listening that involves full attention to what is being said for the primary purpose of   
  understanding the speaker. It is an important skill set for many different circumstances, ranging from the therapist’s
  office to the business world. If we are not listening actively, we are likely to miss the real message.


I   In my experience as a clinician, the ability to use active listening is essential for the long-term happiness of most 
   couples. Attachment Theory has helped us understand that the most basic emotional needs of human beings include 
  the need to be heard and the need to feel important to our partners (Johnson, 2008). One of the most common
  complaints that I hear during couples counseling sessions is one partner saying to the other: “You never listen to me!”

  Social science research also evidences the crucial importance of active listening. Psychologist Willard Harley identified   
  the 10 most common emotional needs of individuals in partner relationships (Harley, 2001). Among these top 10 was the
  need for “intimate conversation.” He described this need as being met by having discussions to inform or ask questions, 
  discussing topics of mutual interest, and the willingness to listen to each other. More to the point, intimate conversation
   required giving and receiving undivided attention.
 

   How to be an active listener

.1.  Listen without making judgments or taking a position on an issue. Gain an understanding of the situation from the other’s point of view.

  2. Allow the speaker to finish thoughts without interruption. This usually includes brief periods of silence, such as a few seconds. It may take some practice before being able to know how long to wait before making some type of response. If unsure, it is always better to wait too long rather than speak too soon and interrupt the speaker’s thoughts.

  3. Show that your attention is focused. Make eye contact, lean in towards the speaker when your interest peaks, and share any humor with a smile or other natural response.

  4. Repeat what you have heard to check for accuracy. Use the speaker’s exact words when in doubt that you have heard accurately; more often, it is better to paraphrase what was said.

  5. Ask questions as needed when you don’t understand what the speaker is trying to communicate, particularly when you’re trying to grasp the main point of their statement.

   6. Give a short summary to indicate that you have heard and understood what was said.

   7. Optional: As the final step, but not sooner, you may choose to share similar situations that you’ve experienced or your own views about the issue. You may even share a completely different opinion than that expressed, as long as that sharing is done after you have understood what was communicated to you.

“The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.” —Stephen R. Covey, author   
  of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

   What to avoid during active listening

11. Interrupting a sentence. Even if there is a long pause, one should first encourage the completion of the thought by the speaker.

  2. Failing to make eye contact. Breaks from eye contact are normal and expected, but a total lack of eye contact communicates a lack of attention.

  3. Rushing the speaker. This can be a challenge, particularly when the speaker goes into excessive or unrelated details to tell their story. Do your best to politely encourage them to move along with the point.

  4. Getting distracted by other thoughts, or events nearby, and losing focus. Daydreaming while pretending to listen is probably only going to frustrate the speaker.

  5. Over focus upon certain details, or asking about minor details that distract from the speaker’s point.

  6. Changing the subject abruptly. This includes interjecting an account of “something similar that happened to me.”

  7. Making jokes or sarcastic comments which distract from the points being made. Save the humor for later in the conversation.

  8. Listening to decide what your reply should be. This is a common risk when the speaker is expressing a complaint and the listener begins to feel defensive. The natural tendency would be to shift focus to “how will I defend myself from this accusation?” or “how will I prove them wrong?” If you have actively listened, you may learn that you don’t need to defend yourself. Your partner may not be blaming you for anything. If blame has been thrown at you, you will have your chance to speak your own thoughts after you’ve listened to the complaint.

Reflect, in your journal, on your own performance using the criteria you used for others and on the following Learning Outcome:
                 LO2: Demonstrate the ability to apply thinking processes to personal and professional situations

Reflect, in your journal, on the attributes of the learner profile and how they apply to showing effective communication. Focus in one one in particular that you feel is the most important.

Teacher notes

Encourage students to consider their performance and understanding on an individual level as well as a class. They might glean a lot from placing their perceptions of their communication skills next to how others might perceive them. This lesson can be sensitive for some students dealing with all sorts of contextual factors so it is down to the teacher's discretion how to navigate it with sensitivity eg. it might be that the focus is changes to more individual work and presenting ideas to one other person if it seems the right thing to do. As ever, teacher's judgement on what will place students within a zone of risk-taking without it being perceived as dangerous.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

Approaches to learning

The lesson plans and activities on this page can be delivered to include explicit and implicit reference to a range of Approaches to Teaching and Learning. The IB's suggestions for ATL skills in the 5 key areas are not exhaustive and you are encouraged to contextualise and add to these as appropriate. The key to students being able to identify skills and use them in a range of situations is to teach the skill explicitly before incorporating it implicitly in a range of contexts. Here we focus on a key ATL skill, that can directly relate not only to the reflective project criteria but also to the following PPS learning outcome.

 LO2: Demonstrate the ability to apply thinking processes to personal and professional situations

ATL Skills area
Social and Communication Skills
Thinking Skills

Specific ATL skills explored
Communication:
- Use a range of speaking and listening techniques to communicate with a variety of audiences
Thinking:

- using visible thinking routines to generate new ideas
- apply pre-existing knowledge to generate new ideas and processes

Link to the reflective project
Criterion D: present a structured and coherent project, use appropriate terminology accurately and consistently, and communicate ideas and concepts clearly[1] but also clear communication is implicit in all the criteria, especially B and C. eg Criterion B 'analyse different perspectives'.
Making the links: Further teacher notes

Where next?

The particular focus here is on the ability to 'Use a range of speaking and listening techniques to communicate with a variety of audiences'* as part of Social and Communication skills which directly relates to the students exploring and evaluating the implications of their ethical dilemma on different stakeholders in their reflective project. However this might be just a starting off point for you.

Clear explicit focus on speaking and listening techniques can be focused and reflected upon in the section on active listening here. However it might be that the Harvard Project Zero routines sends students in a Thinking Skills direction as they consider the potential impact of particular thinking and communication techniques in a professional setting using the routine 'Think, Pair, Share and Projecting Across Time'. You could pick a number of Thinking Skills to focus on but this routine very much recognises students' existing knowledge and them building upon them so you might consider 'using visible thinking routines to generate new ideas'*  or 'apply pre-existing knowledge to generate new ideas and processes'*.

Further links with the reflective project: as stated above, this skill is directly assessed in Criterion D: Communication in the reflective project but clear communication is a skill needed throughout the reflective project, especially when it comes to critical thinking. The focus here on both speaking and listening techniques is with the learner profile attribute of 'balanced' in mind as well as 'communicator. Clear application of speaking and listening techniques gives students the ability to assess and present information fairly. This also sets the tone for being open to multiple perspectives and opinions which is needed for real success in evaluating an ethical dilemma. 

*this is not a direct quote from the ATL site but paraphrased and adapted, and/or amalgamated with other subskills based on the ATL publications.

Top Tip: Remember that 'less is more' when making the links to ATL.

It can be a temptation to draw students' attention to the sheer number of ATL skills that they are accessing at any particular time. You know within PPS that a topic will be exploring any one of the five themes even if your introduction is through explicit focus on one; the same applies to ATL. Try isolating a specific skill and then:

Make explicit reference to it and establish prior learning and experience
Make it useful with ways to practice it so students can experience how it works
Make it transferrable by having moments to consider where they have used this skill before, how they are developing it and where it might be useful in the future.
Make it visible by have the students record and reflect upon the processes they have used.

Footnotes

  1. ^ IBO, The Reflective Project Guide (for first use 2016), p28
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