Communication Skills Week 4

This week’s quizzes on verbal aggressiveness, communication anxiety, and listening skills showed many similarities and few differences when I took the quiz vs. my family and friends taking the quiz.

 I had a friend who I have known for about four months take the quiz for me she had the same results that I had in all areas except for verbal aggressiveness. I scored a 64 and she scored a 69, but this put our results in different brackets. The 64 that I scored stated I was moderately verbally aggressive the 69 stated that I was significantly verbally aggressive. I believe the difference in these scores was due to the group of people my friend observes me communicating with. When I am with my friends I am more relaxed and we joke around a lot. When I completed the test I was thinking of myself as a whole; how I communicate with friends, family, and colleagues. I believe I am more verbally aggressive when I am around my friends in a light hearted joking manner.

The family member I chose to take the quiz was my mother. She rated the same as I had on all quizzes except for communication anxiety. She scored me at a 49 whereas I scored myself at a 43. This again put us in different brackets. She scored me at the moderate level where I may have higher communication anxiety. I thought this was an interesting outcome, because I believed she scored me more accurately than I scored myself. I believe this can be due to the fact she can observe this through my non-verbal and verbal communication cues and how long she has known me for.

My friend and I scored the same for communication anxiety and listening skills. My Mom and I scored the same on verbal aggressiveness and listening skills. From these results it was helpful to see how others perceive me similarly as I perceive myself.

After taking these quizzes and reading the course text this week I developed a stronger sense of self-concept and self-efficacy. Self-concept is developed by thinking about your strengths and weaknesses, observing your behavior in a wide variety of situations, and witnessing your reactions and how others react to you (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012). I found myself learning about the influence the results my Mom and friend had on myself. When they did not match what I had for a result I became concerned and then thought about why the results were different. The results were mainly different, because they were not viewing the quiz on all aspects of communication that I encounter. They were evaluating me based on the social contexts they observe me in. Self-efficacy is the ability to predict actual success from self-concept and self-esteem. By taking the quizzes this week I learned that I avoid situations where I feel my self-efficacy is low. I saw this in my choice of who I asked to take the quizzes for me. I purposely did not ask for colleagues to take the quiz for me because I was nervous to find out the results. I am sure they would have been fine, but I avoided the situation because I was fearing the unknown. Learning about self-efficacy and self-concept has made me more aware of myself and my choice of communication strategies. I will now be more apt to realize the situations I avoid and my self-concept and apply changes where necessary in both my professional and personal life.

References

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedfor/ St. Martin's.

Week 3 Blog

I find myself communicating differently with people from different groups on a regular basis. In my daily encounters I speak to children, colleagues, staff whom I supervise, family, and friends. The language I use varies based upon the group of people who I am talking to. When I am talking to my family and friends I use more slang language and I am not as cautious about my non-verbal communication. Talking with colleagues and staff whom I supervise the language I choose is professional. I do not use slang or words or profanity. I am also careful to be aware of my non-verbal communication. I do my best to use good listening skills and always consider the platinum rule when having a disagreement with someone. When communicating with children I am very aware of all of my communication skills. I use verbal communication I know they will understand along with introducing them to new words. I am careful to make sure to give them enough time to respond back to me and give time for them to express themselves in their ways of communicating. In regards to race, religion, political affiliation, and sexual orientation I do not find myself often communicating differently unless it is to express a sign of respect. 

Week 2 EDUC 6165 Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication

The show I chose to watch was "Roseanne". When I first watched it with the TV muted there appeared to be many relationships. There were two girls who seemed to be friends. A middle aged woman and man who appeared to be husband and wife. There was another woman who appeared to be a friend of the husband and wife and another man who appeared to be this other woman’s spouse.

                The non-verbal communication between the girls seemed that one girl was annoyed with the other and what she was saying at first. Then it appeared to be they were keeping a secret when the mother walked in. Their non-verbal communication changed and rather than look of anger and confusion on their faces they had a look of fear. Therefore the relationship with their mother did not appear to be a good one. The woman who appeared to be a friend of the husband and wife seemed to be that they were talking about a problem that she had. When the second man walked in, he seemed to be the person they had been talking about and as the show went on the non-verbal communication showed they were angry with one another, but when they kissed showed they had loving feelings for one another.

                When I watched “Roseanne” with the sound I found I had made very few assumptions about what had been happening. The spot I was most off on was the relationships. The two girls I thought were friends were actually sisters. The person who I thought was a friend of the husband and wife was actually the wife’s sister. I found for this show the non-verbal communication accurately aligned with the verbal communication. I would be interested to find out if I did this for another show if it would be different. If I were watching a show I knew well I would have already known the relationships and had a better understanding of the relationships before I even watched it.

                This assignment helped me to understand that non-verbal communication can really help one to understand how one is feeling. Granted I could not tell you exactly what the problems were that had occurred in the show until I heard what they were talking about I still knew when there was an argument happening or when the two girls were keeping a secret. I will be interested to see if others in this class had a similar or different experience than I had.

Week 1 EDUC 6165

I have always looked at one of my best friends as a competent communicator. We used to see each other on a daily basis and she would always greet me with a smile, ask me how I was doing, or compliment me in some way. This immediately made it easy for me to talk to her. If I had talked to her about something in the past she would follow-up with me on the topic. I always like how she will remember what I have talked to her about. She also does a great job of having difficult conversations with other people. She does not make them feel belittled or like their feelings are belittled. She makes sure to validate the other person’s feelings and opinions while getting her point across at the same time. Every day I try to model my own communication behaviors after her. She knows how to effectively communicate in a positive manner without being offensive to the other person. This is a great quality and I strive to make sure I come across the same way in conversations I have with other people.

Professional Hopes and Goals

Working in an early childhood setting on a daily basis exposes me to all kinds of diversity. Each day I see children and families enter our program from all different backgrounds. It can be challenging for a classroom teacher and staff to reflect and respect the many different cultural backgrounds while still providing an enriching environment for the children to thrive in. My hope working as an assistant education coordinator is to find ways to support staff in learning about the different cultural backgrounds and ways in which they can include all children and families in their classroom environment.

My goal for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to ensure that all families are included in the classroom environment. This will need to be accomplished by reflecting upon biases and prejudices of teachers, classroom staff, and the dominant culture. One will then need to take this information and expand upon their environments to create a richer-well-rounded diverse learning environment.

I would like to take a moment to say thank you to all of my fellow classmates in this class “Perspectives on Diversity and Equity”. Each and every one of you have taught me more about diversity and equity as it relates to the early childhood field and ways in which we can create a more diverse environment for our children to learn and grow in. By reading your posts it has made me think deeper about the perspectives we have studied each week and for that I thank you. Best of luck with your future endeavors.

Welcoming Families from Around the World

For this week’s assignment I am choosing the country Switzerland for a family that were to enter into my program from a country I know nothing about to enter my early childhood program. The following are five steps I would take to prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family.

1.       I would research the country and learn about their ways of living, school settings, and common cultural practices.

2.       As I did my research about the country I would reflect upon any biases I may have as I learned more about the country.

3.       I would make sure to research their language and do my best to provide them with a greeting that they are most familiar with.

4.       I would make basic changes to my early childhood environment based on my research that would make the family feel more comfortable in my early childhood setting. I may do this by providing translations in the classroom from English to Swiss if they are not proficient in the English language. If possible I would attempt to provide a translator.

5.       I would prepare a list with any further questions I may have that would be more specific to the family to be able to learn specific cultural practices of the family. I would ask these questions over a period of time.

My hopes by taking the above five steps will benefit both myself and the family. It would hopefully open the doorway for communication. I hope to make the family would feel as comfortable as possible and welcomed as they entered my program. It will take time to build the relationship, but these steps will hopefully be the first step in building my relationship with this family.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

As this is being posted on the internet I do not feel comfortable going into specific details about the situation, but there was a time where I experienced sexism. During this instance I felt I was not being treated fairly and because I am a woman I was told I was not capable of following through with the responsibilities. I felt defeated and that I was being treated poorly. I felt I should have the same respect as a man and I knew I could follow through with the responsibilities. From talking to others I am not the first person who was made to feel this way. In order to change the situation I would need to speak up to this person, therefore I would need to change and feel more comfortable with voicing my feelings about the situation.