Management and Leadership Chapter 10

1. COURSENOTES
COURSE TITLE: MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION
COURSE CODE: EPB2033
PREPARED BY: TENGKU NOORAINUN TENGKU SHAHDAN

2. COURSE: EPB2033: MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION
FACULTY: EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Version: 01
Date: 18/03/2011
2
TOPIC 10: Communication in Schools
(Textbook Chapter 11)
10.0 Introduction
This topic will explain communication in schools. The topic also covers the basic model of
communication. Learners should be able to give example of: (a) one-way communication; (b)
two-way communication. At the end of this topic, learners should be able to explain how a
communication process of schools as an open and social system.
10.0.1 Overview
Communication is complex, and important; it happen every aspect of school life.
Teachers instruct using oral, written, and other media such as DVDs, computers, e-
mail, and in other forms. Students also demonstrate their learning through similar
way. Indeed, communication in schools has multiple purposes, such as accomplishing
organizational goals and maintaining positive relationships (Te’eni, 2001).
Four recommends for Educational Administrators;
• Communication is difficult to isolate from other administrative processes.
• Not all school problems involve miscommunication.
• Communication reveals, hides, as well as eliminates problems.
• Communication is a process that evokes action but is far from the substance of
good administration.
10.1 Key Contents
10.1.1 A Definition and General Model of Communication
 Communication is the process that people use to exchange significant messages
and share meaning about their ideas and feelings with one another (Porter and
Roberts, 1976; Manning, 1992).
 Communication, in other words, is sharing information, ideas, and attitudes in
ways that produce a degree of understanding between two or more people (Lewis,
1975)
 Using face-to-face or technological media, individuals interact and influence each
other through communication (Craig, 1999)
 Communication, in sum, is a relational process during which sources transmit
message using symbols, signs, and contextual cues to express meaning to have
receivers construct similar understandings, and to influence behaviour.

3. COURSE: EPB2033: MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION
FACULTY: EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Version: 01
Date: 18/03/2011
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10.1.2 Key Elements of Communication Model
 Senders are often referred to as sources, speakers, and signallers. More
concretely, they are individuals, groups, and organizational untis (e.g., office of
the superintendent, teachers’ union, student council) distributing messages to
other individuals, groups, and organizations.
 Messages are typically verbal or nonverbal cures or symbols representing ideas
and information that senders hope to communicate or transfer to others. Senders
explicitly formulate goals and strategies for their messages before converting
them to symbolic forms. To achieve these goals, senders employ a variety of
communication strategies. These include providing context and specify in their
messages, setting a proper affective tone, adjusting messages using prior feedback
from the receivers, controlling the message by coordinating the communication
process.
 The media or channels simply are the vehicles carrying the messages. The range
from light waves or nonverbal cues and signals; to sound waves of talking face-
to-face; to electronic signals in telephones, e-mail, and video conferencing; to
written letters and memos.
 Receiver marks the destination of the message of the individuals. By reading,
listening, and watching, individuals construct meanings by interpreting or making
sense of the messages they accept.
 Feedback is the result of understanding and relationships from the
communication. Using feedback enables the sender to make corrections and
enhance mutual understanding. Feedback is a response from a person who has
received a message. It provides knowledge about the meaning and impact of the
message for receiver and an opportunity for the sender to correct any problems.
First, it supplies clues about the success of the communication and improves the
accuracy and clarity of a message. Second, the knowledge of results forms a basis
for correcting or modifying future communication.
 Effect is the outcome or general result of the message. Example outcome might
include new knowledge, mutual understandings, different attitudes, a change in
school culture, modified job satisfaction levels, new or enhanced relationships
between the sender and receiver.
 Context takes a central role in the model because it influences all the other
components in the model. The openness of school climate, level of
bureaucratization, and trust levels among educators and students, for example,
will dramatically impact the efficiency and effectiveness of communication
efforts.

4. COURSE: EPB2033: MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION
FACULTY: EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Version: 01
Date: 18/03/2011
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Figure 10.1 A General Model of Communication Processes
10.1.3 One-way communication and two-way communication
 One way communication occurs when one person tells another person something.
This type of communication is unilateral; it is initiated by a speaker and
terminated at a listener (Shmuck and Runkel, 1985). Lectures in classrooms about
subject matter and no respond from students. Other examples include
announcements over the public address system in a school or during meetings.
The advantages of one-way communication are twofold (Clampitt, 2001). First, it
emphasizes the skills of the message sender and encourages administrators and
teachers to think through their ideas, accurately articulate them, and provide
specificity in their instructions, explanations, and descriptions. Second, one-way
strategies typically imply strong linkages between communication behaviour and
action.
 Two way communications is interactive process; all participants in the process
initiate and receive message. Four types of individual dialogue, conversations,
inquiry, debate and instruction.
- Conversation is distinguished by two qualities: a generally cooperative,
tolerant spirit and direction toward mutual understanding. This form is used
when individuals are interested in understanding each other’s perspectives and
experiences.
- Inquiry involves two or more people cooperating to answer a question,
resolve a disagreement, or formulate a compromise that is agreeable to all.
Dialogue of this nature typically investigates alternatives and examines
possible answers within a structure that encourages a range of perspectives
and approaches to the problem.
- Debate exhibits sharp questioning, and no necessary need for agreement
among the participants. The potential benefit of debate is that the participants
see that their alternative ideas and opinions receive the most intense challenge
possible.
Goals
Strategies
Media and
Message
Sender
Effect/Outcome
Context
Receiver

5. COURSE: EPB2033: MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION
FACULTY: EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Version: 01
Date: 18/03/2011
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- Instruction involves an intentional process in which a teacher leads students
to certain answers or understandings.
10.1.4 Individual Communication Competence
 Sending Skills
 Use appropriate direct language
 Avoid jargon and complex concepts
 Information must be clear and complete
 Build on or reorganize receiver’s cognitive schema
 Minimize noise from the physical or psychological environment
 Use multiple and appropriate channels of media
 Use face-to-face communication and redundancy when communicating
complex messages
• Receiving Skills (Listening Skills)
 Attending
 Eye contact, receptive body language, focus
 Questioning
 Encouraging
 Verbal and non-verbal cues
 Paraphrasing
 Reflecting feeling
 Summarizing
 Feedback Skills- Sending and receiving skills that convey knowledge of
results or effects of previous communications and behaviors.
 Can be verbal or non-verbal
 Asking questioning, describing behavior, paraphrasing
 Information should be helpful to the recipient
 Specific rather than general
 Recent rather than old
 Directed toward behavior the person could change
 Timely, the more immediate the better
10.1.5 Channels of Communication
• Verbal symbols
• Human speech – direct, face to face conversation or electronic
exchanges via telephone, radio, television, video conferencing
• Written media – memos, letters, faxes, electronic mail and bulletin
boards, instant messaging, newspapers.
• Non-verbal symbols
• Body language or gestures – facial expressions, posture, hand and arm
movements
• Physical items or artifacts with symbolic value – office furnishings,
clothing, and jewelry
• Space – Territoriality and personal space
• Touching and hugging
• Time
• Intonation, accents, pitch, intensity, rate of speech

6. COURSE: EPB2033: MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION
FACULTY: EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Version: 01
Date: 18/03/2011
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10.1.6 Sources in Communication Processes: Senders and Receivers
• Credibility
• Believability, identity and reputation of the sender
• Sender’s expertness and trustworthiness
• Trust and confidence the receiver has in the words and actions
of the sender
• Cognitive Capacities
• Psychological characteristics limit individual communication
• Communication skills
• Knowledge of subject
• Personality
• Motivation factors (attitudes, values, interests, expectations)
10.1.6 Communicating in Context
• Noise - Contextual, physical, cultural, environmental distractions that interfere
with the communication process
• Examples in schools
• Closed organizational climates
• Punishment-centered bureaucratic structures
• Cultural or gender differences
• Authoritarian leadership
• Teacher militancy
• Demographic prejudice
• Outdated or obscure technology
10.2 Informal communication networks
Advantages of “the grapevine”
• Active informal networks are indicative of a school’s culture and provide
vital feedback to leaders
• Informal channels may satisfy social or affiliation needs not met by formal
channels
• Grapevines fill an information void and provide outlets when formal
information channels are clogged
• Informal networks provide meaning for activities within the school
10.3 Summary
Communication means sharing messages, ideas, or attitudes to produce understanding or
shared meaning among people. Four conclusions seem clear. First, to be a good
communicator is to know the various types of communication, their particular
characteristics, how to choose among them, and how to apply them skilfully. Second,
individuals exchange symbols with other persons when interacting in social situations;
the people who interpret them in a given situation construct the meanings of those
symbols. Third, messages traverse formal and informal channels, using a variety of
verbal and nonverbal media. Fourth, to ensure a high level of shared understanding,
feedback is essential.

7. COURSE: EPB2033: MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION
FACULTY: EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Version: 01
Date: 18/03/2011
7
10.4 Tutorial Activities
10.4.1 Activity 1
Observe a meeting conducted by a school principal or department chair. Take
notes or tape and transcribe what the leader said during the session. What do
you think the meanings of the leader’s main messages were? Do the verbal
and nonverbal messages complement each other? Meet with the leader and
check whether you accurately interpreted the intended meaning, finally,
evaluate how clearly you believe the leader communicated with the attendees?
10.5 REFERENCES
Wayne K. H, & Cecil G. M. (2008). Educational Administration: Theory, Research,
and Practice. Eight Edition -International Edition. New York: McGraw – Hill
Companies.