The range of abilities needed to successfully engage in classroom and school interactions, including: vocal quality, articulation and speaking ability, organization, preparation and presentation of a variety of materials, a variety of media and technology, interpersonal skills (gauging audience interest, spontaneity, humor, enthusiasm), body language and movement in the room, confidence, and the ability to shift focus based on ongoing interactions with students.
Published in Chapter:
Teaching and Learning to Communicate: Methods for Developing K-20 Students’ Presentation and Communication Skills
Cynthia J. Benton (SUNY Cortland, USA) and Kathleen A. Lawrence (SUNY Cortland, USA)
Copyright: © 2013
|Pages: 21
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-4249-2.ch034
Abstract
Effective presentation skills and communication competence are important developmental qualities for teachers’ professional success and K-12 students’ learning. Yet identifying the definitive qualities and methods to practice and evaluate those skills has had minimal emphasis in current education programs. In addition to traditional abilities such as making clear presentations, speaking well, and articulating an argument, K-20 learners are faced with an explosion of options for accessing, organizing, and presenting information using technology. This study documents methods for college-level instruction and assessment of presentation skills, which serve as evidence of preservice teachers' readiness to demonstrate effective communication skills for K-12 student learning. The report summarized in this chapter tracks two years of creating and evaluating methods for promoting professional presentation and communication skills, and includes rubrics focused on the development and evaluation of those skills.