Perspective Chapter: Communication as an Essential Strategy in the Success of the Teaching-Learning Process

Abstract

There is a close and important relationship between communication and the teaching-learning process, transversal to the modalities of face-to-face and remote teaching. The effectiveness of communication in the classroom depends on the adequate use of the voice by the teacher. The use of this pedagogical strategy to transmit knowledge to their students’ places teachers among the professional groups that are at greater risk of developing voice disorders throughout their professional lives. In this chapter, we share some strategies and resources to optimize the communicative skills of teachers, focusing on voice strategies.

1. Introduction

From early childhood, through the elderly stage of life, human beings need to acquire efficient and effective communication processes with individuals in all contexts of life [1].

Communication is the mother of all skills in all contexts of life. In an academic context, communication ability is crucial to achieving success. Choosing the appropriate channel, the right voice tone, and melody, the adequate content with clear and objective information is critical to how that message will be received and understood.

In recent years, higher education institutions have been concerned with improving the academic qualification profile of their professors. This demand for excellence, especially for university professors, has been linked to the privilege of their research and innovation projects. Although, these approaches lead to a misconception that to be a good university professor, it is enough to be a good researcher. Therefore, the importance of specific academic skills, such as communication skills, tends to be ignored in higher education.

Communicative processes have fundamental importance and support professor-student discursive interactions contribute directly to the teaching-learning process [2].

In this chapter, we intend to enhance the importance of communication as an essential strategy in the success of the teaching and learning processes highlighting the role of the voice in these contexts.

2. Communication and its importance in professor-student relationship

Communication can be defined as the act by which a person transmits or receives from another person information about knowledge, needs, desires, and perceptions among others [3].

The communication process presupposes the sharing of information between at least two actors: the sender, who encodes and transmits the message, and the receiver, who decodes and receives the message. Also, important is that both master the same linguist code to generate understanding. An effective communicator must use not only verbal communication, in its oral and/or written format, but also non-verbal communication, such as gestures, facial expressions, and body movements [4]. Providing feedback is also crucial for communication efficiency, whether verbal or non-verbal [5].

When individuals can implement effective communication processes, they will be able to contribute significantly to performing well in their schoolwork, studies, job duties, achieving desired goals, enhancing personality traits, and bringing about improvements in one’s overall standards of living [1].

From the beginning of any child’s academic life, professors play a key role, not only in the academic training of their students, but also in the development of motivation to learn [6].

The communicative act, far from being a simple act, is complex and interacts with a lot of variables that can be decisively influenced. The communication process occurs in a large variety of situations, such as exchanging information, presenting ideas, clarifying, giving instructions, understanding, working cooperatively with different communicative partners, expressing feelings, motivating, inspiring, and communicating decisions. If we think about the professor’s professional context, all these situations are part of his daily basis life. The classrooms are spaces of communication. The words and the way they are said, guide interactions and allow students’ appropriation of meanings [2].

Communicative competence refers to mastering the skills necessary to ensure the transmission and reception of the flow of messages, with control of two processes: speaking and listening [7]. During the teaching-learning process, it´s crucial to keep in mind that there is no absolutization of ignorance, nor absolutization of knowledge. Nobody knows everything, just as nobody ignores everything. Knowledge starts with the awareness of knowing a little [8].

University professors can be excellent and effective communicators. They are used to work collaboratively with different kinds of interlocutors, students of different ages and socio-cultural backgrounds, scientists, professors of different areas of experts, policymakers, and so on. They also used to attend conferences having to present their work with clarity and confidence. So, it is undeniable that communication is a fundamental part of a professor’s life. Likewise, it is undeniable that it is the communication with their students that constitutes the greatest challenge in the teacher’s professional life since it is the one that most impacts the quality and effectiveness of their work. Yet, when professors engage with students, they can face barriers to getting their message across and can often find their messages hard to transfer effectively. University professors are the only professors that are not trained in their academic education with pedagogical training. The proficiency of pedagogical skills has been a deficit in university professors’ education, regardless of professionalism in teaching. Unfortunately, some university professors do not recognize or minimize the importance of pedagogical skills for professional performance.

2.1 Barriers to communication in classrooms

Professors have an increasingly challenging job when communicating effectively with classrooms with numerous students that may contain students who come from varied sociocultural backgrounds.

As we have seen so far, communicating is not a one-way street. It takes at least two people to talk. Someone is speaking and the other one is listening. The efficacy of communication in classrooms should be determined by how closely the student’s understanding matches the intent of the professor. Most misunderstandings and difficulties in the communication process between professors and students can result in demotivation, academic failure, and early school leaving.

Some of the frequent communication barriers usually described are listed below:

1. Lack of ease and spontaneity caused by social conventions or moral pressures;

2. Difficulty expressing clearly, simply, and concisely certain ideas;

3. Inadequacy of the language to the sociocultural universe of the interlocutor;

4. Use of unknown terms to the receiver (e.g., loanwords) and abbreviations and acronyms;

5. Estrangement and lack of interest manifested concerning the message received;

6. Lack of regard for the values of the interlocutor—political, cultural, social, religious, and ethnic, among others;

7. Use of an aggressive and provocative voice tone with the intention of frightening the interlocutor;

8. Manipulation of the interlocutor to lead him to question the validity of what you think, feel and say;

9. Imposition of ideas, experiences, and options, not admitting any openness to debate;

10. Use of abstract and exaggerated technique language, to make the receiver inferior.

Other constraints that prejudice efficient communication are preconceived ideas; lack of motivation and interest; disrespectful behaviors; source credibility; channel complexity; organizational climate; and personal bias and conflicts. Lack of motivation in classes is often pointed out by students as a key factor for their demotivation [9].

In a busy world with hundreds of stimuli, requests, solicitations, notifications one click away, with concentration-time dropping dramatically, it is harder to maintain motivation and interest in long hours of expositive classes. We acknowledge that professors are competing with unfair conditions. It is a challenge and an opportunity as well.

At this point, we would like to emphasize a critical constraint not mentioned until now: the generation gap. The generational gap is one of the biggest reasons for the intergenerational disconnect. Much of their conflict is rooted in ways they differ in communication methods styles and how big the gap between the generations is [10].

Communication has been around for centuries. The first cave drawings found, were a way for early humans to register and share information. Over the centuries humans evolved, and so did their communication styles. Even though written communication, language is always evolving. Whether that is the spoken word or written works, meanings and interpretations will change as humans change.

Professors and students have a generation gap, more accentuated in primary and secondary education but also observed in higher education. A critical barrier to cross-generational communication is negative perceptions of each other [10]. Unfortunately, each generation cannot resist putting labels and stereotypes on each generation: baby boomers, millennials, and Gen X.

Above all the differences, there is a communication gap across generations which must be considered, especially by professors. We live in a global, connected, and digital world, and students who arrived at higher education are born in the twenty-first century, digitally native-born. Connected almost the entire day, between laptops, desktops, smartphones, and tablets, students engage and communicate using multiple devices. Inevitably, this fact has implications for the way these new generations consume information, formulate knowledge, and communicate what they think and what they know.

Most of the professors in higher education are from the baby boomer generation, who grew up with face-to-face communications and who struggle to fully embrace the digital communication revolution at work. On the other hand, its students are mainly belonging to Gen Z, who have grown up with access to screens and the internet from a young age, preferring written communications over in-person ones, and expecting a fast response to their messages.

In a study carried out with the aim of evaluating the communication skills of professors, and their communicative attitudes [11] was demonstrated that professors valued more technical competence, material preparation, class structuring, and organization. However, the students valued other aspects such as the “nice attitude” of the professors and communication effectiveness. By communication effectiveness, the students pointed out examples such as the use of simple and attractive language; the preparation and organization of classes, commitment to student learning, use of practical examples during class, and the quality of how the classes were taught.

Usually, students recognize their professors as experts in their scientific field and do not question their academic knowledge about the syllabus contents of the disciplines they teach. What students often question is the ability of their professors to communicate the most complex content clearly and simply, which could negatively influence their academic achievement.

It should be noted that the professor’s communicative ability, from the interactional point of view, also has been little addressed in most research. The most frequent approach aims this population still emphasizes the professor’s voice from the clinical point of view, such as the characterization of their profile and vocal behavior [12, 13, 14, 15].

Taking that into consideration, we assume that it is crucial to bring the quality and excellence of the teaching-learning process and the training of professors to their full potential, considering the important weight of training professors with pedagogical skills.

2.2 Communication as an opportunity to improve academic achievement

Communication, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration are frequently mentioned as the most important competencies for twenty-first century students. Effective communication begins with mutual respect, communication that inspires, and encourages others to do their best.

As university professors highly engaged with the importance of communication that impacts and empowers students along with their learning process, we believe that education is the energy that transmits to new generations the passion and commitment to achieve a better, inclusive, and fair world in all the social, political, economic sectors of the society. To accomplish that, we believe professors must embrace open, clear, and honest communication with their students in a relation of true reciprocity. As communicators, professors are contagious in different ways: nonverbally, verbally, and emotionally.

In the classroom context, there are some strategies to optimize communication that can be able to positively contaminate the audience.

1. Organize the information: use an “ODC model” (Opening – Development – Closing). Group information into “blocks” can facilitate motivation. The content of the class must be objective and at the same time transmitted with emotion.

2. Periodically break the routine: encourage student participation; share a real story; make analogies; bring appealing elements to communication.

3. Engage students: allow them to bring explanatory examples, share reflections and experiences, suggest the inclusion of subjects, work cooperatively on tangible objectives, communicate, and evaluate the performance of colleagues.

4. Making updates: marking the rhythm of the class, and making summaries help keep students frequently updated, which contributes to maintaining pace and focus.

5. Use appealing features: more images, less text, video, and other online resources.

A recent book on “conscious communication” [7] listed and characterized the most relevant factors for successful communication: authenticity; double focus; respect for the rules; self-esteem expression; and problem-solving attitude.

Due to its relevance to the teaching-learning process, we would like to highlight some of the decisive attitudes that allow a better understanding between professors and students in the teaching-learning process (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Examples of some positive attitudes to promote communication in classrooms.

In addition to the aspects mentioned above, giving accurate feedback is a renowned factor to be acknowledged in effective communication processes with a significant impact on the learning process. Feedback is one of the most effective teaching and learning strategies and has an immediate impact on learning progress [5].

Feedback is a compelling influence on student achievement. When professors are open to what students know, what they understand, where they make errors, and when they have misconceptions when they are not engaged; then, teaching and learning can be synchronized and powerful [5]. Effective feedback encourages reflection and allows the students to think about their learning strategies so they can adjust to achieve progress and success in their learning process.

Some strategies are crucial to give feedback correctly in the classroom context, such as:

1. Help students to understand the assessment of their learning process;

2. Allow time to discuss feedback with students on an individual or small group basis with regularity;

3. Give feedback as close as possible to the assessment task;

4. Be specific and explicit about feedback, providing examples and real situations;

5. Encourage students to ask questions about their feedback;

6. Encourage them to note down their questions;

7. Guarantee that the students understand what is being discussed;

8. Ask the students what they think they need to improve on their academic goals;

9. Share your advice about future steps for academic improvement;

10. Promote student´s discussions with you and/or with their peers;

Although feedback is considered one of the most powerful influences on teaching-learning process, it is important to assume that its impact can be either positive or negative. In a study that provided a conceptual analysis of feedback and reviews the evidence related to its impact on learning and achievement, was found evidence shows that although feedback is among the major influences, the type of feedback and the way it is given can be differentially effective, suggesting some ways in which feedback can be used to enhance its effectiveness in classrooms [16].

3. Voice strategies to improve professor’s communication

As has been presented so far, appropriate communication in the classroom is essential for the success of the teaching-learning process. Among the different forms of communication that professors can use, the oral exposition of syllabus contents is the most used pedagogical strategy in an educational context [17]. Clearly conveying information, presenting it in a way that keeps students’ attention and motivation, as well as answering any questions that may arise, are aspects that concern the professor’s duties. It is, therefore, clear that knowledge about the contents is naturally very important, but it is also known that the way in which this knowledge is transmitted becomes crucial. In this sense, the effectiveness of communication in the classroom necessarily involves, among other aspects, the proper use of the voice by the professor. It is essential, therefore, that the professor’s voice is perceptible, motivating, assertive, and effective so that it is possible to capture and maintain the student’s attention. The need to keep students interested and attentive for extended periods of time implies the dynamic use of the voice, with variations in volume, diction, and pauses, among others [14]. Monotonous voices, without expressiveness, are weak and/or produced with tension and effort can jeopardize the effectiveness of communication in the classroom [18].

According to Moura [14], the professor’s voice is generically characterized by a strong intensity, requiring a lot of resistance and dynamism, and it is frequent to observe tension associated with vocal production, interfering with various characteristics of the voice. Furthermore, during professional activities, professors are also subject to contextual/environmental situations that may interfere with their health and vocal quality, such as poor classroom acoustics; temperature variations; noise; and long periods of classes; with little time to rest and recover the voice; stress.

In a study that analyzed the verbal and non-verbal expressive resources used by higher education professors, it was observed that the parameters related to the frequency and vocal intensity were the factors that most influenced the professors’ expressiveness, reinforcing that these aspects can have an influence in the teaching-learning process [2]. Other studies also show that aspects, such as voice quality and intensity, speech rate, and the use of pauses are valued by students [19, 20, 21].

The importance that the voice assumes, not only as a pedagogical strategy but also as an important element in the relationship with the quality of life of professors, has been the subject of study over the years. However, there are some studies that show that these professionals have difficulty identifying their vocal characteristics, which can lead to the adoption of less careful behavior with their voice and, consequently, makes professors not seek help in case of difficulties [15, 22, 23]. In this sense, it is essential that professors acquire knowledge about their voice so that they can recognize its qualities and limits and, thus, make the best use of their voice for the development of their pedagogical activities [18, 24, 25].

Based on the previous assumptions, a vocal health program was developed and implemented for professors at the University of Algarve, in Portugal [26]. This program, very focused on aspects of vocal health, aimed to raise awareness among professors of the importance of good vocal health and the prevention of potential vocal pathologies but also focused on optimizing professors’ vocal skills.

Since the voice is an important working tool for professors, it is essential to take care of it. Thus, regardless of the teaching modality (face-to-face or remotely), it is very important to prepare the moments of more intense use of the voice, then maintain its use in a healthy, perceptible, and motivating way, and, later, recover from the period of use intense voice. An essential orientation that cuts across different moments (preparation, maintenance, and vocal recovery) is the consumption of water as a form of hydration (Figure 2). In a recent systematic review of literature, it was concluded that hydration is the easiest and most economical solution to improve vocal quality, therefore supporting the inclusion of hydration in vocal hygiene programs [27].

Figure 2.

Examples of strategies for optimizing professor’s communication skills, before, during, and after class.

The analogy between the professor and the high-competition athlete is often used to illustrate the fact that both use their work tools intensively: the professor, the voice; the athlete, the muscles of the body. However, contrary to the athlete, the professor does not, as a rule, have specific training/preparation for the use of the voice for communication in the classroom.

Before a class, it is important to prepare voice and body. On the one hand, hydration should be started before the period of more intense use of the voice and, on the other hand, somebody and vocal relaxation exercises, as suggested in (Figure 2). Activating the structures responsible for voice production, as well as performing some warm-up vocal exercises, is extremely important. It is suggested that, in an initial phase, even in the absence of vocal pathology, the professor can be guided by a speech therapist or vocal coach.

During the class, it is important to adopt a proper body posture, not only because it is essential to promote good breathing, but also because it supports and structures the voice [14]. To get the students’ attention, the professor can resort to different strategies without calling into question communication, in general, and his voice, in particular. When communication takes place through writing, the use, for example, of italics, bold, and underlining, are resources used to highlight the most important ideas and, thus, draw attention to the fact that you are reading, in oral communication, there are also strategies that may have the same function. Turning up the volume when you are talking is an effective and widely used strategy when you want to capture attention. However, this may not be the only way to use voice volume as an ally in classroom communication. In situations where, for example, the noise in the room is already high, if you reduce the volume of your voice, you can also achieve the effect of drawing attention to yourself and/or to what is being said, due to the contrast that occurs.

Another extremely important aspect is the way the teacher articulates the words. A more closed diction is, consequently, less clear and this could condition the way the message reaches the student, even leading to him losing attention and interest in what is being said. Thus, and in general, the professor should be concerned with having clear and precise diction, and in a more particular way, he can even use a more exaggerated articulation, as a strategy to draw attention to aspects that he wants to highlight.

Rhythm is another feature that should be used to optimize communicative skills in the classroom. Varying the pace, and minimizing the monotonous effect of the speech, can be very useful in the classroom. The variation in rhythm can be associated not only with the increase or decrease in the speed of what is said but, for example, resorting to the syllabic segmentation of words or small expressions to be highlighted, which will certainly attract the students' attention. Pauses are also associated with rhythm. In communication, silence also conveys information, it gives time to those who are sharing an idea but above all to those who are receiving the message, to reflect. Using silent pauses strategically, before or after the words, expressions, and/or ideas you want to emphasize, is also a good example of optimizing communication.

Parallel to the examples of strategies provided above (Figure 2), the professor can also use gestures, and facial and body expressions to reinforce and complement his communication in the classroom. However, it is important not to forget that the gestures must be coherent and consistent with what is being said, to promote communication, and not make it less clear.

Even during the class, less demanding pedagogical activities from the vocal point of view can be carried out, namely, watching videos, group work, and exposition of preparatory contents by students, among others, which will allow the professor to have some moments of rest vocal.

Whenever possible, the professor can adopt a position closer to the students, because by reducing the distance to the interlocutor, the need to project the voice is reduced and it will be easier to keep the audience more attentive and involved [14].

At the end of the class, it is important, just like a top-level athlete, to vocal cool down, restore and recover your voice (vocal cool down exercises are similar to vocal warm-up exercises, differing only in intensity and amplitude, which should be smaller [14]. As such, in addition to some appropriate vocal exercises, it is important to do some vocal rest, with quieter and more relaxed moments, and may associate some physical activity, such as walking or others that meet the professor’s personal tastes. Stretching and yawning are small gestures that have a great impact on releasing accumulated tensions, often reported by professionals who use their voice professionally, such as teachers, and which can be used either as a form of preparation or as a way of recovering from a period of intense use of the voice.

4. Conclusions

This chapter addresses general aspects of communication and how they are important in the relationship between professors and students, with implications for the teaching-learning process. Communication barriers were identified. It is essential to acknowledge and be aware of the aspects that can interfere with the communicative process, as this is the only way these barriers can be overcome. A look at how communication can enhance academic development was also presented, with a presentation of some strategies that can be adopted. To end this chapter, some basic, but essential notions, are presented about vocal aspects that can improve professors' communication in the classroom.

We believe that in-depth knowledge of the main communicative difficulties experienced by teachers and students during the teaching-learning process is the best way for us to outline effective action plans that promote communicative processes in the classroom, to facilitate pathways of participatory, motivating, and transforming learning. The success of students is the success of professors and the success of educational institutions. It is necessary to work cooperatively from the beginning and raise awareness among the decision-making elements of the institutions to invest in the pedagogical training of their professor staff as a reasonable response to mitigating failure and school dropout of the students.

Programs designed for university professors with a special focus on communication and voice skills such as the one that we have enhanced in this chapter should be valued and disseminated across higher education institutions.

The approach to communication needs to be unified in higher education institutions, in a concise strategy to provide the best practices of streamlined, effective, and empathetic communication.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.