As I
watched “Community-Introduction to Teaching” in silence, I observed a lot of
eye movement, hand gestures, questionable looks, swaying of the head, and faces
full of angriness, confusion, frustration, doubt and a little compassion from
teachers and students. The show included
classroom instruction time, facility instructors meeting together, the study
group session, and individual meetings between facility instructors,
instructors and students, and between students.
When I
reviewed the show with voice dialog, I was able to put together the reason for
my observations. The lawyer student was introduced to the role of a facility
member. His first day, the student who
he was attracted to calls him out because he was not prepared to teach. Throughout the show, there were numerous
other encounters among the instructors and students. I am glad that I was able to understand
why the film student (who participates in the study group) became overwhelmed
and was acting out in his presentation assignment of watching a Nicholas Cage
movie and providing thoughts about his acting skills.
As educators,
we must be aware that verbal and nonverbal communication can be contradicting. Communication
does have many facets and can be seen in different ways. “It is important to
bear in mind, however, that just because we tend to place more stock in
nonverbal communication doesn’t mean that we are always right,” (O’Hare &
Wiemann, 2012, p. 130). Just watching in
silence, I would assume that the students and teachers did not really care for
one another. It is best to be provided
the whole picture before making a decision or forming an opinion.
After
watching this show, I was able to find that this show is relaxing with a little
humor. It is not one that I would continuously
watch weekly, yet it would be an alternative if I could not find something more
interesting.
O'Hair,
D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real
communication: An introduction. New York:
Bedford/St. Martin's. Chapter 5, “Nonverbal
Communication”.
Hi Patricia
ReplyDeleteThis was definitely an interesting blog assignment. It was a new experience watching a television show with no sound. However, I learned a lot by doing so. Since we were not familiar with the shows that we watched, we based our assumptions off of nonverbal communication alone. By doing so, I discovered that I was pretty wrong about the assumptions that I made. Like you mentioned, I noted a lot of facial expressions that seemed to translate a different message than when I watched the show with the volume on. I think that this just shows how important nonverbal communication is. It made me think of someone who is deaf. They have to rely on facial expressions and other nonverbal gestures to communicate with others. I found this rather difficult. I wonder if people who are hearing impaired find the same difficulty.
Patricia, I like what you said about “I observed a lot of eye movement, hand gestures, questionable looks, swaying of the head, and faces full of angriness, confusion, frustration, doubt and a little compassion from teachers and students.” I have watched this sitcom before and I can just picture who does each of these “gestures.” I also like what you said about “As educators, we must be aware that verbal and nonverbal communication can be contradicting.” I think so many times both have contradicted each other and sometimes they have been misunderstood as well. IT is our job to not put more “faith” in one more than the other, and just learn to communicate appropriately.
ReplyDeleteReferences
Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Walters, J., & Fenson, S. (2000). A crash course in communication. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/articles/2000/08/20000.html
Patricia,
ReplyDeleteYou made a great observation in that we do at times process non-verbal cues before actually hearing the "whole picture". What I enjoyed about this exercise is that it made me pay closer attention to the conversation during the 2nd watching. Sometimes when we're comfortable with people our attention wanders. Because I had never seen the show, I was more intent to make sure I understood the conversation behind the gestures. Great post and comments provided by Lauren and Lelabug.