Communication: Engaging the Audience

Enabling voice is to create the positive conditions that allow all individuals to express

their thinking, and to be open to receiving others' thinking. In our definition

communication is the expression of the individual's voice through any form of

messaging. We recognize the primacy of speaking and embodiment but other forms

of communication — writing, reading, numeracy and representations that are visual,

spatial and bodily, or mediated through instruments and technology — are also an

expression of human development and human voice. It is through all these expressions

that we construct a reality of who we are, who others are and what the world is

(Campos, 2007). In 4Cs learning all voices must be heard, supported and challenged

through expression in a range of communication modes.

Individual empowerment and the 'genius' of the group can only be realized when

all voices are enabled. To enable all voices, no one voice can dominate. Through

targeted pedagogy, dominant voices learn to generously let others communicate, and

unconfident or unpractised communicators are given support and space to find their

voices. To enable all voices in learning takes time, practice and feedback, but the

fruition of these labours in pedagogy are learners with skills to be able to collaborate.

reflect and create. In a primary classroom where students struggled with collaboration

the teachers used strategies such as each student in a group using a different coloured

pencil to communicate their thinking, so it was visually apparent that everyone in the

group had the opportunity to voice their thoughts on paper. The teachers also used

embodiment exercises where groups had to communicate non-verbally by offering

and yielding their ideas to create a group tableau for each person's idea, and reach a

group consensus of which idea they would all agree on.

'Bus stop' strategies (also referred to in Chapter 8 as a strategy for collaborative

'offering' and 'yielding') enable all voices to reflect on learning by answering an

open question, and sitting down only when they have contributed a new idea

elaborated on someone else's previous idea. The question could be: 'Why do we

really need to know about earthquakes and volcanos?' The students may map and

organize their ideas in small groups and then, as a class forum, stand up and construct

a 'discussion' by randomly speaking one at a time and then sitting down. By close

attention, no one can interrupt or repeat anything that has been previously said, then

can only elaborate, extend or advance the ideas raised. Strategies like 'bus stop.

highlight and enable students to voice their ideas in different ways throughout all their

learning.

There are environmental, individual and group dynamic factors that can

hinder the enabling of the voice in the learning situation. Based on Salazar's (2002;

2009) work on group communication, the following factors have to be addressed

to enable voices in learning. The factors that Salazar (2002; 2009) argues hinder

communication are:

Time pressures. Organizational culture. Functional fixedness. Evaluation apprehension. Production blocking. Network structures.

Time pressures inhibit communication, as there is not enough space for group

members to adequately express their thoughts. In learning, time has to be devoted to

enable students to express their thinking, and for implementing strategies that

develop the students' abilities to put thinking into words or representations. This

includes strategies such as think, pair and share, or embody, speak and write, or

brainstorm, exhibit and feedback, or the flipped classroom where students outside the

classroom are exposed to new materials to develop their ideas. Pedagogical time in

learning has to be spent developing the confidence and skills to communicate

effectively. The aspiration for teachers and students is to acknowledge, enable and

hold to account every voice in a learning session.

Another factor that affects communication is the patterns and structures of an

organizational or classroom culture that prevent risk taking in thinking. Being averse

to risk in learning may be indicated by students only willing to express a 'right'

answer, or students reluctant to creatively problem-solve. A risk-taking learning

culture values divergent and challenging thinking by students. Risk taking openly

and continually acknowledges learning from mistakes. To take risks in thinking is to

let go of self-censorship and the fear of making a mistake. Communicating thinking

in the public sphere is taking a risk. The learning environment has to support and

scaffold this leap of faith for students.

Enabling the voice can also be constrained by individual factors related to

functional fixedness. Functional fixedness refers to a person's habitual ways of

thinking in a situation. Varying communication strategies, such as drawing an

abstract picture to explain your thinking, creating an embodied 'postcard' or

brainstorming salient words are used to explore different ways of enabling voice, and

developing flexible and divergent thinking in learning.

Evaluation apprehension is when people refrain from expressing their thoughts

for fear of being judged or seen in a negative light. Voices can only be enabled and

valued in a positive learning culture. Through feedback and applause from the

teacher and other students, communication skills are valued and affirmed.

To enable individual voices the dynamic of group communication is navigated in

terms of production blocking. Production blocking is the inhibition of people

communicating when someone else is communicating. Put simply, we can't talk at

the same time and we have to wait for our turn. This can lead to production blocking

because not everyone may be able to contribute at the right time.

Network structures are the patterning of communication amongst people, for

instance one person in a group may always lead discussions, another may always have

the final word, or another will usually wait to be asked to contribute. The

characteristics can be mindfully addressed by teachers through pedagogy, and

students when collaborating. Production blocking and network structures are address

by varying the configurations, opportunities and types of communication. For example

working individually online for a group brainstorm or discussion.

groups communicating non-verbally by constructing images or tableaus.

small groups discussing ideas and 'jigsawing' those ideas back to a larger group.

All of these strategies enable student voices by varying the production and structures

of communication.

Communication can be any form appropriate for knowledge creation and audience.

Communication can be speech, discussion, inquiry, experiment, poem, report, dance,

diagram, formula or code, it needs to be framed and understood as a means of

communication and enablement of a person's thinking. Being alert to messaging is

awareness of communication, and enabling voice provides the opportunity to

communicate. Awareness and enablement allow communicators to begin to construct

and co-construct meaning about themselves and the world around them. These first

two aspects of the Communication Crystal scaffold are only effective if the meaning

of the message is conveyed with purpose and control.