a) Introduction:

To be effective, instructors need to know the right information to pass on to their learners. But just as importantly, they also need to be able to communicate this information and help adult learners in their daily learning situations. Good communication is a two-way sharing of information. It involves finding out people’s views, listening carefully to what they say and understanding their situation.

b) Objectives:

By the end of this topic, the participants should be able to:

 

• describe the skills that contribute to effective communication.
• mention the medium and barriers to effective communication.
• demonstrate methods for good communication.

c) Time: 1 hour 15 minutes.

d) Learning Aids: Newsprint, markers, manila strips, illustrated hand-outs on information overload, prepared short message to start off the whispering exercise.

e) Procedure and Learning Points:

1. [10 min.] Get some participants to sit in a circle. Let the first person in the circle whisper a message to the person on his/her right hand side (so that no one else can hear). The person who has just received the message whispers the message that he/she heard to the person on his/her right. The process continues until all have whispered the message to the person on their right. When it arrives back to the original sender of the message, that person states what he/she has just received as a message and also the original message that was sent.

Learning Points:

Communication can be changed from the original message if:

 

- People are not listening well.
- Hearing is not good.
- Language is different.
- The topic is not known.

2. [10 min.] Put up the following list of words (one set at a go) and ask participants to write what they remember in 30 seconds for each set.

Learning Points:

 

- You will realise that column 3 (set 3) will be the easiest for the participants and column 1 the hardest. Why is this so?

- We should always use well-known words and any new words should be carefully explained. Use short sentences and preferably in the local language.

3. [20 min.] Ask participants to go into groups and discuss Mr. Byaruhanga’s Communication Skills:

Learning Points:

 

- Avoid information overload. It is better to emphasize a few essential, easily remembered points.

- Present information in a logical way and check whether the person understands what you are communicating by asking open-ended questions, active listening to what they say and repeating their responses.

- People believe you by what you do, not by what you say.

4. [15 min.] Present two situations about HIV/AIDS. In one, just tell participants that you can get AIDS from many sexual partners, blood transfusion, breast-feeding, etc.

In another situation, present this information together with the posters available on the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Ask participants to discuss what was the most effective way of communicating the information about HIV/AIDS.

Learning Points:

 

- When communicating to people, make sure that you attract more than one sense of the receiver.

- Message which is not only heard, but also seen, felt and tasted will be easily remembered by the receiver.

- A channel (media) of communication that appeals to more than one sense is good for communicating message (compare a Television and Radio).

f) Assessment: [20 min.]

Ask participants to answer the following:

 

• What can you do to be clearly understood?
• How do you know that someone has understood what you have communicated?
• What are the common communication barriers?

g) Follow-up:

Give participants hand-outs on communication skills and channels of communication to be read later.