Communication skills and the assurance of learning

Communication skills and

the assurance of learning

Rowena Harper

Associate Director, Curriculum Development and Support

Teaching Innovation Unit

November 2017

What do we mean by

assurance of learning?

Demonstrating that students have achieved the

learning outcomes for their program

What do we mean by communication?

An example

Task

Reflect on the academic readings provided and comment on the

role of developing communication skills during your

postgraduate accounting studies.

Source: Moore, 2007

An example

Communication is significantly important in the current accounting field. With

the ability to communicate, an accountant should be able to prepare &

distributing accounting information for users to have a wider perspective of

economic financial in one’s company.

Developing comm. skills is a part of study process which mainly consists of skill

of social comm., skill of presenting ideas, skill of speaking in the public, skill of

writing & make reports, skill of problem solving, skill of decision-making, and

many others.

Comm in accounting is assessed as a whole picture of Genetic skills, it’s very

important to have comm. skill in accounting as right now accounting is not only

depends on 100% of technical skills but also depends on ability to analyzing

and interpreting (which only available when someone develops his/her comm.

skills.

∴ comm skill is very important to develop, it helps us with broder range of ability

(besides technical one).

Source: Moore, 2007

An example

“Poor sentence structure (including incomplete sentences)”

“Grammatical errors that affect readability and meaning”

“Limited vocabulary (repetition of words)”

“You need to work on your English”

“I strongly recommend that you visit a language and learning adviser in

the learning support unit”

Source: Moore, 2007


English language proficiency

Grammar

Vocabulary

Remedial skill

An example

Task

Reflect on the academic readings provided and comment on the

role of developing communication skills during your

postgraduate accounting studies.

Source: Moore, 2007

An example

“he doesn’t demonstrate any understanding of what he’s

really supposed to do”

“he doesn’t look as though he’s read the texts”

“he’s saying communication skills are important but he doesn’t give any

explanation of why, giving examples”

“[there’s] constant restatement … [with] no development”

Source: Moore, 2007

An example

Reflect does not mean ‘think about’

Reflect means systematically and critically analyse something, and

apply it to your own relevant personal experiences

Comment on does not mean ‘share some thoughts’

Comment on, in this assignment, means demonstrate your reflective

thinking (see above) in relation to the texts provided

Source: Moore, 2007



Grammar

Vocabulary

Remedial skill

analysis of texts and ideas

showing wide and relevant reading

relating theory to experience

criticality

Exposition / explanation /

argumentation

An example

Communication is significantly important in the current accounting field. With

the ability to communicate, an accountant should be able to prepare &

distributing accounting information for users to have a wider perspective of

economic financial in one’s company.

Developing comm. skills is a part of study process which mainly consists of skill

of social comm., skill of presenting ideas, skill of speaking in the public, skill of

writing & make reports, skill of problem solving, skill of decision-making, and

many others.

Comm in accounting is assessed as a whole picture of Genetic skills, it’s very

important to have comm. skill in accounting as right now accounting is not only

depends on 100% of technical skills but also depends on ability to analyzing

and interpreting (which only available when someone develops his/her comm.

skills.

∴ comm skill is very important to develop, it helps us with broder range of ability

(besides technical one).

Source: Moore, 2007



grammar

vocabulary

remedial skill

analysis of texts and ideas

showing wide and relevant reading

relating theory to experience

criticality

exposition / explanation /

argumentation

audiences

written / spoken / visual / graphical / numerical

purposes

contexts

Less successful writing attempts [miss] the mark not just in

some communicative sense, but in the sense of doing the

analytical work of the discipline. So teaching history writing

is in fact teaching [the discipline of] history.

(Beaufort & Williams, 2005)

Communication is part of how we

practice our disciplines

Communication as an outcome

Quality assurance = entry standards

Quality assurance = outcomes

Assurance of learning

We claim graduates have communication skills: what do mean, and

how do we know?

Reposition communication in higher education teaching and learning:

• From international to all students

• From entry to exit

• From a deficit/preparation approach to development and

assessment

Source: Arkoudis, 2014


Source: Arkoudis & Harris, 2016

What are your communication learning

outcomes?

Purposes

ContextsAudiences

Discipline learning standards, Accounting

OLT website


outcomes?

Discipline learning standards, various

OLT website

Do you have stated, agreed upon learning outcomes for

communication at program level?

• What are the contexts for communication in your discipline?

• situations, audiences, purposes, topics

• What forms of communication does your discipline use?

• reports, essays, memos, research papers

• negotiations, clinical handovers, interviews

• tweets, graphs, video-conferencing


outcomes?

Useful/key reference points

Discipline learning standards

Professional standards

Graduate qualities

Institutional priorities


outcomes?


OLT website

http://www.olt.gov.au/search/apachesolr_search/academic standards

https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/download-graduate-level-descriptorsa45e8f91b1e86477b58fff00006709da.pdf?sfvrsn=d0b6eb3c_0

O’Loughlin & Arkoudis, 2010

1. Social/everyday communication

2. Academic literacies

3. Professional communication

Macken-Horarik et al (2006)

Harper, Prentice & Wilson (2011)


outcomes?



• How do we ‘unpack’ the program learning outcome/s

into course/assessment learning outcomes?

• What levels do we expect students to reach in years

1, 2, 3 etc.?

• What do students need to learn first?

How do we plan/map milestones?

Level 1 outcomes Level 2 outcomes Level 3 outcomes



OLT website



OLT website



• What do students need to learn to meet the

objectives and milestones?

• What are the explicit and implicit expectations?

• Communication is typically positioned as the last part

of a complex literacy process (Wingate 2017)– Finding and filtering information

– Making sense of information

– Summarising and synthesising information

– Formulating a decision, response or position

– Choosing an appropriate form of communication

– Constructing the communication appropriately

How do we teach it?

Think about what good communication looks like in your

discipline.

Where are these forms of communication:

• Observed by students?

• Modelled for students?

• Taught?

• Practiced?

• Assessed?

How do we teach it?

How do we teach it?

Texts for learning Texts students need to produce

Lecture notes Scholarly reports

Online videos Essays

Textbooks Business letters

Quizzes Presentations

Scholarly texts Short answer questions

Popular texts

Learning materials typically don’t model what we want

students to do



Moderate assessments

Every now and again we have discussions about how

should we mark an assignment that is good in content but

where you really have to dig around and work out what

they’re saying. So if you can understand it, do you ignore

the English?

(Program Director)

Source: Harper, 2015


When you’re marking, what’s the criteria? What’s the

trigger? What’s the point at which we say ‘no, this needs to

be reworked by the student’.

(Course Coordinator)


Moderate assessmentsI had another colleague that I coordinated a course with

once … and she would insist on failing a student if she

couldn’t get the message in the assignment. I differed, and

this is a debate that we never resolved. She would say that

if the sentences aren’t well constructed the student fails.

Her argument was, ‘I can understand what my four-year-old

granddaughter says, but that doesn’t mean she’s speaking

well’ … we literally fought over it, because I refused to fail

the student if I could understand what they were saying … I

speak five languages and I speak English, so for me

English isn’t something sacred … Whereas for her, abuse of

English, or what she perceived as an abuse of English, was

something unforgivable … she would literally throw the

assignments on the floor.

(Course Coordinator)


• Stated, agreed upon learning outcomes

• Rubrics and exemplars to explain and illustrate

standards

• Conversations, discussion, consensus building

• Always subjective to some extent, but we can make the

judgement more transparent and more fair




• Health Sciences – clinical communication modules

• Civil Engineering – developing meaningful assessment

Two examples of communication

embedding

Clinical communication project

• Small internal T&L grant to work on communication in

health sciences disciplines

• Wanted to develop online modules that could be used in

any discipline

• Sonography educator brought together lecturers from

physio, dietetics and nursing, and a language and

literacy coordinator

What are the learning

outcomes?



Adapting your own communication to the level of understanding and language of the patient, avoiding jargon

Building and maintaining rapport and an empathetic relationship, and ensuring that the patient feels attended and listened to

Relating to the patient respectfully, including ensuring confidentiality, privacy and autonomy, and recognising the patient as a partner in shaping a relationship


What are the milestones?

Student demonstrates

awareness of each aspect

of communication

Student identifies how

each aspect of

communication affects the

success of observed clinical

interactions

Student practises and

reflects on their own use of

each aspect of

communication in role-play

or clinical simulation

Student effectively uses

each aspect of

communication in a clinical

setting

Staged pedagogy, based on Miller’s pyramid

Aspects of communication1. Body language – reading it, responding to it, using it

2. Words and phrases – interpreting, selecting, adapting

3. Reflective listening

4. Proxemics

5. Voice

6. Supporting materials (handouts, notes, equipment)

Awareness of their

role in communication

Ability to use these

as tools to achieve

clinical aims


What are the milestones?


How do we teach it?

Video scenariosTeaching

packagesRubrics

Civil Engineering project

https://lo.unisa.edu.au/course/view.php?id=9637



Course

coordinator

Program

Director

Course

coordinator

Course

coordinator

Academic

developer

Language and

Learning

Online ed.

designer

Communication

as an outcome

Library

Students?

References

Source: Moore, 2007

Arkoudis, S. (2014). Integrating English language communication skills into disciplinary curricula: options and

strategies. Report for the Office for Learning and Teaching. Retrieved from:

http://www.olt.gov.au/resource-integrating-english-language-communication-skills-disciplinary-curriclua

Arkoudis, S. & Harris, A. Graduate Communication Skills: Distributed Expertise Model. Funded by the Office

for Learning and Teaching. Retrieved from: http://melbourne-

cshe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/2318523/OLT-Grad-Comms-Skills-web.pdf

Beaufort, A. & Williams, J.A. (2005). “Writing history: Informed or not by genre theory?” In Herrington, A. and

Moran, C. (Eds.) Genre across the Curriculum. USU Press: Utah. 44-64.

Harper, R., Prentice, S. & Wilson, K. (2011). English language perplexity: Articulating the tensions in the

DEEWR “Good Practice Principles”. The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education,

2(1). 36–48. doi: 10.5204/intjfyhe.v2i1.51

Macken-Horarik, M., Devereux, L., Trimingham-Jack, C. & Wilson, K. (2006). Negotiating the territory of

tertiary literacies: A case study of teacher education. Linguistics and Education, 17(3), 240-257.

Moore, Stephen (2007), ‘Exploring Accounting lecturer perceptions of ‘good’ and ‘poor’ NESB student writing’,

University of Sydney Papers in TESOL, 2, 61-82.

Murray, N. L. (2010). Conceptualising the English language needs of first year university students. The

International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 1(1), 55-64.

O'Loughlin, K. & Arkoudis, S. (2009). Investigating IELTS exit score gains in higher education. IELTS

Research Reports, Vol. 10.

Wingate, U. (2017). “Opening the doors to the disciplines: developing curriculum-integrated academic literacy

instruction.” Paper presented to the 13th Biennial Conference of the Association for Academic

Language and Learning, Geelong VIC, November 1, 2017.

http://www.olt.gov.au/resource-integrating-english-language-communication-skills-disciplinary-curriclua

http://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/2318523/OLT-Grad-Comms-Skills-web.pdf

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Communication skills and the assurance of learning