Every part of this section is directly useful to me personally and as a teacher in the community.
On a personal level, the contents of the section has really made me understand better that listening to the words being spoken alone is not enough, that it is important to pay attention to what is being said, how it being said and ensure I try to get the meaning intended by the speaker. This will enable me be able to understand things better from the viewpoints of others and thus be better equipped to find ways to make a connection.
In my classroom practice, apart from working to improve on my listening and speaking to make me a better communicator, I am planning on preparing a 1 – 2 pages handout for my students on listening/speaking skills for effective communication. After distributing draft copies of the handout to students, I’d facilitate a discussion session to hear their understandings of the topic and their inputs. A final copy will then be prepared and each student given a copy for his/her personal use.
We could have another discussion session to discuss NVC and guide them to understand the various components into their daily lives and how they could use NVC in mediating among their peers.
In my day-to-day classroom practice, I’d be injecting snippets of the various skills/components of peaceful communication to guide the students to imbibe these values into their lives.
Ibrahim,
ReplyDeleteI am curious to know how well this has worked in your classroom. It is unfortunate that we do not learn this form of communication as we are growing up so that it comes naturally to us. Trying to unlearn our old ways of communication are difficult and often, for me, feel/sound unnatural. How do you feel about this?
Gwen
Gwen, It is not easy unlearning habits we have grown up accustomed to. But at the same time, reaching a conclusion on the need for change after personal reflection will certainly make it easier for us to initiate steps towards making the required changes. We tend to mostly go on the defensive when being confronted on the need for changes in our behaviour by others, but if the decision to change is borne out of our personal convictions resulting from sincere internal soul searching, we'd be motivated to take action. Most of us hate making changes due to the comments or observations of others, maybe it is our ego at work? In teaching, i am able to guide my students to adopt NVC ideals by always using every opportunity to show them how they can integrate them into their lives and the potential benefits. It is easier for them at their growing up stage because they are able to blend it into their lives as the 'in thing' before any other line of thinking sinks into their consciousness.
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