{"id":30443,"date":"2023-01-25T09:20:30","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T17:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=30443"},"modified":"2023-01-26T16:13:56","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T00:13:56","slug":"why-reteaching-concepts-helps-me-communicate-competently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/why-reteaching-concepts-helps-me-communicate-competently\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Reteaching Concepts Helps Me Communicate Competently"},"content":{"rendered":"

The key to learning new concepts in any discipline is the realization that communication consists of confident competency. \u00a0It is the orientation of all effort of what we give our lives to that builds not only our knowledge, but our competency. As I listened to the TED Talk by Robert Devon as he asked the question, \u201cWhy do we have to reteach concepts?\u201d[1]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0I realized through the last three decades of teaching writing and communication to college students, It was for student\u2019s best interests that I overcame barriers myself as the lead communicator and hopefully, a competent one. The problem I am experiencing, however, in reading Breaking Through<\/span>\u00a0along with Jan Meyer and Ray Land\u2019s Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge <\/span>is how the onus is placed mostly, not entirely, on student understanding. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1994, I taught my first college writing class because the dean of the language arts department asked me to fill in at the last minute. \u00a0At the time, I was serving as an executive assistant and ghost writer to the college president. Never had I taken a course on how to teach. \u00a0Surprisingly, that one class turned into teaching full and part-time for the next 25 years at three different universities. Sitting in the front row seat of observing students who were initially petrified of public speaking or riddled with anxiety because of writing incompetence, is what kept me signing contracts to return: By semester\u2019s end most students overcame their impediments. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As Meyer and Land describe, \u201cThis \u2018breaking through\u2019 or transformation can be sudden or it may be protracted over a period of time, (even considerable periods).\u201d [2]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0I spent hours of my teaching life witnessing student understanding, interpreting and viewing \u201cwriting and speaking portals\u201d until they themselves embodied what they were trying to say or trying to write. I would argue, however, that I, as the lead learner or professor, had to step into my own portals with each new wave of cultural change. \u00a0What I believe the literature is missing are the pressures teachers and professors must consider and undertake in order for students to have metacognitive experiences. What are the pressures that have emerged for teachers\/professors in the past three decades that cause stronger feelings of liminality: uncertainty about identity, self, purpose?<\/span><\/p>\n

Pressure One: Developing Competence<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Teaching writing and public speaking concepts in the 90s did not translate the same way in the early 2000s. \u00a0 Previously if students had a question, needed clarification, or wanted help on an assignment, they would raise their hand in class or stay after class to talk. Something strange occurred when I went back to the classroom after a two-year sabbatical (I had three babies in three years); as soon as class was over, I would return to my office only to find 5-7 student emails asking me clarifying questions or help on an assignment. You see, by 2003, everyone of my students had email. As a young professor, knowing the dimensions of competence was an important first step for me in developing competence. \u00a0After all, I spent many years explicitly and implicitly learning how to teach communications. For example, I was explicitly competent in having face to face communication\/conversations with my students. \u00a0My competence involved knowledge, motivation and skills. But suddenly being faced with electronic communication from my students caused me to question my own tacit knowledge. I felt uncertain about how to teach the concepts I knew so well through a computer conversation. My students were not responsible for my sudden feelings of incompetence\u2013it was an area where I had deficiencies and it took me considerable effort and admitting I didn\u2019t know what I didn\u2019t know (see next point). \u00a0In fairness to Land and Meyer, they purport: \u201csocial science researchers must extend their methodological thinking beyond mimicry and bring their own voice to a unique inquiry\u201d (157). And so must the professor and teacher.<\/p>\n

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Pressure Two: Understanding Unconscious Incompetence<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Just when I thought I was becoming consciously competent in the classroom and in emails, 2008-2012 produced FaceBook and the iphone. My students had information at their fingertips; information I did not have (yet). \u00a0Before I could even build up a rich teaching class experience for my students again, I found myself unconsciously incompetent\u2013meaning that I wasn\u2019t even aware that I was communicating in anything but a competent manner. \u00a0In chapter four, \u201cMetacognition, Affect and Conceptual Difficulty,\u201d metacognitive experiences are the \u201cinterface between the person and the task. They monitor the person\u2019s response to the task at hand, the fluency of cognitive processing, and the extent to which the goal set has been accomplished.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The way I read this is that I will have good feelings even if a task is difficult when there\u2019s familiarity and knowing. If I can correct my thoughts because I have the good judgment to do so, I will feel confident. \u00a0Here\u2019s where I find my second problem with the text. \u00a0When I faced a threshold concept as high intrinsic load (The world of information technology), my skills had to increase quickly so that I could advance in my communication competency. \u00a0Excellent teachers, communicators, pastors, writers, academics and artists don\u2019t always have the bandwidth or the luxury to have liminal space. My breaking through had to happen suddenly. In fact, IT and my students were fully present helping me in that liminal space. <\/span><\/p>\n

Pressure Three: Becoming Consciously Competent<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul writes to the Corinthians, \u201cI also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Paul\u2019s willingness to know the One thing that mattered made him consciously competent\u2013communicating well in the moment. A final pressure I experienced as a professor during the last decade was when students cared more about how the group would perceive them than admitting a concept was difficult to understand. Without student entry into liminal spaces through inductive and deductive reasoning, I felt the burden of their individual \u201cportals\u201d multiply. \u00a0Something had to give. \u00a0I unleashed my own relentless curiosity in the classroom until the questions were safely spoken again. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why do we need to reteach concepts to students? \u00a0Perhaps it\u2019s not just for the student. \u201cDoctoral candidates reported that \u201climinality was often hidden from discussion\u201d (158).Considering where the culture has landed, one way I can progress toward communication competence is to become a more mindful communicator\u2013actively and fluidly processing information, becoming more sensitive to communication contexts, and able to adapt to difficult situations. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Breaking Through: Threshold Concepts as a Key to Understanding | Robert Coven | TEDxCaryAcademy<\/span>, 2018.<\/span>\u00a0<\/a><\/span>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GCPYSKSFky4<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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[2]<\/a>\u00a0Land, Ray, Jan Meyer, and Michael T Flanagan. <\/span>Threshold Concepts in Practice<\/span>. 1st ed. 2016. Educational Futures, Rethinking Theory and Practice. Rotterdam: SensePublishers, 2016.<\/span>\u00a0<\/a><\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-94-6300-512-8<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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[3]<\/a>\u00a0Land, Meyer, and T Flanagan, <\/span>Threshold Concepts in Practice<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[4]<\/a>\u00a0Nelson, Thomas. <\/span>NKJV, Reference Bible, Classic Verse-by-Verse, Center-Column, Genuine Leather, Black, Red Letter, Comfort Print: Holy Bible, New King James Version<\/span>. Thomas Nelson, 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The key to learning new concepts in any discipline is the realization that communication consists of confident competency. \u00a0It is the orientation of all effort of what we give our lives to that builds not only our knowledge, but our competency. As I listened to the TED Talk by Robert Devon as he asked the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[342,2335,1252,651,1952,392,310],"class_list":["post-30443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-communication","tag-cultural-competence","tag-liminal","tag-liminality","tag-questions","tag-socialmedia","tag-teaching","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30443"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30447,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30443\/revisions\/30447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}