Collaboration Skills in Special Education SPED 568

1. Collaboration Skillsin Special EducationSPED 568

2. Components of Collaboration Programs or Services Personal Commitment Communication Skills Interaction Processes Context

3. Components of Collaboration Communication Skills Personal Commitment Context

4. InterpersonalCommunication

5. A Model of Communication • Earliest models focused on one-way communication • a sender delivered a message and the passive receiver decoded it. HEY

6. A Model of Communication • More contemporary models view as a dynamic and complex communication process HEY

7. A Model of Communication • More contemporary models view as a dynamic and complex communication process What?

8. Common Attributes of Communication Models • Communication is • a process of exchanging information between a sender and a receiver • totality of the exchange • Communication through Channels (tactile? Olfactory?) • “Noise” • Continuous feedback • Multichannel sharing of information (my whole being!)

9. Story time!

10. Definition of Communication Interpersonal communication is… • Complex, reciprocal process • through which participants create meanings • as messages are transmitted • continuously and simultaneously • from one communicator to another • via multiple communication channels including electronic!

11. Prerequisites to Effective Communication • Frame of reference: • Your role • In Multicultural settings

12. Consider alternate frames of reference… “What do you mean?” • Teacher: “I really don’t know what to do to help her. I’m not sure she should be in my class.” • Parent: “He’s been in special education for three years now. Isn’t he caught up yet?”

13. Individualistic Low-context: “to the point” Talk Directness Uneven turn-taking Collectivistic High-context: from experience Silence Indirectness Balanced turn-taking Cross-Cultural Communication

14. Prerequisites to Effective Communication • Frame of reference: • Your role: • In Multicultural settings: your values and orientation • Selective perception: what did you notice?

15. Nonverbal Communication

16. Non Verbal Communication • Spatial relations • spatial zones • Body movements • gestures and facial expressions • Vocal cues • paralanguage • Minimal encouragers • silence

17. Understanding Nonverbal Communication: Yours and Mine! Congruence Subjectivity involved in interpreting non-verbal communication Need to identify your own patterns of nonverbal behavior Individualism • Non verbal cues are in line with verbal message • Congruence communicates sincere understanding and genuine interest

18. Verbal Communication Principles Effect Your Message Concreteness Promotes trust Conveys a nonjudgmental and accepting attitude Neutrality • Exchange concrete, specific information • Imprecise language is the cause of much miscommunication

19. Try this: • Can you be specific? (teacher) • “How is his home life?” • “She’s not really invested in her work” • “That parent is always upset”

20. Listening: Why is it so hard to do well?

21. Why is Listening so Important? • Helps establish rapport • Allows accurate understanding • Demonstrates a desire to understand

22. Listen to me!

23. Factors that Interfere with Effective Listening • Responding to assumptions • Insufficient time • Rehearsing my response • Daydreaming • Hot Words • Filtering the message • Extraneous details

24. What might interfere with your listening? How would you get around it? • A colleague with whom you collaborate demeans some of the students’ cultural or religious beliefs, calling them foolish or irrelevant • At a team meeting, your proposal for a new block scheduling plan – which you developed based on concerns expressed by the team and the quality of which you believe reflect the many hours you spent on it – is severely criticized and rejected by the team

25. Ideas for Effective Listening • Paraphrasing -Restating what another person has said in your own words • Asking Open Questions- explores a person's statement without requiring a simple ``yes'' or ``no'' answer • Feeling reflection- your perception of the speaker's feelings based on words, tone, and body language

26. Paraphrasing… • I think it’s ridiculous that the girls have their heads covered all the time. • You believe they shouldn’t have to cover their heads.

27. Asking Open Questions… • What part of the block plan did you find most difficult to understand? • Where do you feel the plan does meet your concerns?

28. Feeling Reflection… • I get sick of all these changes to our schedules! • I hear you feeling angry and resentful at being asked to deal with more change” The most difficult active listening response to make. You have to listen to what is said and the feeling behind it!

29. Improving My Listening Skills • Mentally prepare to listen • Mentally review the information you’re given • Categorize the information • Make notes of informational details • Seek to differentiate and make opinions between inferences, facts and opinions

30. Tonight: • Reflect on your listening skills as you discuss the project with your team: • What are your strengths • What are your areas for improvement?

31. Improving My Communication Skills • Become a student of communication • Nurture and communicate openness • Keep communication meaningful • Use silence effectively • Adapt your communication to match the task and the relationship