Role of Communication Skills in Education

Sudeshna Das
2014 IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science  
Let us first define the key words of this topic... Communication: Communication is the interaction between two or more animate or inanimate things. Communication (from Latin "communis", meaning to share) is the activity of conveying information through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, visuals, signals, writing, or behavior.(1) Skills: Skills, in context of communication is the art of exchanging thoughts or ideas from mind to mind or soul to soul of individuals
more » ... th equal reciprocation. Education: Education generally means imparting information in a systematic and scheduled manner. Education in its general sense is a form of learning in which knowledge, skills, and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next through teaching, training, research, or simply through autodidacticism. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts.(2) Summing up these definitions, the role of communication skills in education in today"s context is, teaching and training a child with the basic skills of communication, that is listening, speaking, reading and writing to establish himself successfully in the society and make an affluent livelihood. One of the drawback of the above aim of education is this that it considers all human beings having same potential and ignores the individuality of an individual being. It considers human beings as a dead rock which can be carved as per the prevailing market demand. It fails to consider human beings as a living soul which grows and evolves as per his own potential. This attitude of guardians or teachers generates a conflict in the childs"s mind. In my years of teaching experience, one thing generally observed is that many students are pursuing great professional courses not because they are interested, but because their parents think these courses will make them successful professionals. Once they realize that this profession might not be self fulfilling or not their cup of tea, they don"t hesitate to leave the same and join some other. Many times it is at the cost of their livelihood, comfort and affluence. Hope the readers will agree to my view. However, only looking forward towards earning livelihood may be a too shallow aim of education. To me the purpose of education is much wider as well as deeper, as explained in the following sentence "The chief aim of education should be to help the growing soul to draw out that in itself which is best and make it perfect for a noble use".(3)Here comes the role of communication skills of a teacher and guardian, how they can bring out the best in a child. Discussion And Reasons: Swami Vivekananda in one of his writings has mentioned that one cannot have mangoes on a neem tree. But certainly a good care taken by a gardener can grow an excellent neem tree. In Swamiji"s words, "Thus Vedanta says that within man is all knowledge even in a boy it is so, and it requires only an awakening and that much is the work of a teacher". To drive his point home, he refers to the growth of a plant. Just as in case of a plant, one cannot do anything more than supplying it with water, air and manure, while it grows from within its own nature, so is the case of human child. (4) I strongly believe in this view, that what is within comes out and manifests externally. Keeping this view in mind one can say that the prime responsibility of a teacher is to identify, what is there hidden in a child. To bring out the hidden man in us or what is termed as Atmagyan. Here comes the role of the teacher as a communicator or a facilitator or a gardener, to bring out the hidden potential of the child and give it a right direction. Once the potential and area of interest has been identified in a child, the child gets the direction of learning and educating himself. By communicating to the students and understanding them, a teacher plays a dual role of understanding and gauging the real interest of the child and making him realize his direction . It"s the duty of the teacher and guardian to communicate it to the individual, make him realize his potential and show the right of interest. This can be done only by communicating all the time, apart from a formal
doi:10.9790/0837-19177477 fatcat:yfemqhdjwfbyficvmg67cdr5ri