Communication & Advice

This week in class we discussed interpersonal communication. Coreen and Katie did a fantastic job with their lesson. It was obvious from the beginning that their lesson was well thought out and then executed.  I enjoyed this chapter in Students Helping Students because it focuses on communication.

Communication is key when working with students. We are constantly communicating information, assignments, ideas, and advice to our peers. This chapter and the lesson identified some key communication skills that enable us to give more than advice.

It reminded me of one situation with a peer that was thinking about switching schools to be closer to their family. I was able to rely on knowledge gained through this book and our course when providing advice. A interesting line from the book, “your job is to help the student solve the problem, not to solve it for her (or him)”. I think most accurately sums up the way in which we should be providing to advice and its not limited to our peers. Whenever we are attempting to help others through interpersonal communication it should be our goal to help others help themselves.

We are able to do this most simply by asking questions. By looking for more information and hopefully guiding others to solve problems themselves.  We will often have the benefit of bringing in an alternate perspective and perhaps open their eyes to more options before them.

Another point that I found especially important was the characteristic of being “Approachable and Secure as a Person”. It is important that we behave in a manner that encourages others to seek out help when they need it. Things like anxiety, uncertainty and unreasonable fear stand in the way of being approachable and secure. I believe this to be an important chapter in our text and have referred back to it on past occasions.

Developing interpersonal communications skills is a process we can always be developing and it is key skill in any profession.