The concept and essence of pedagogical communication

Communication between teacher and student is one of the main forms in which the thousand-year-old wisdom accumulated by humanity has come down to us. In the New Testament, Christian doctrine is set forth for the most part in the form of the fellowship of Christ with his disciples. And Zen Buddhism, religious philosophy, which almost did not know the treatises like a mosaic, consists of stories about teacher monks and their students.

Pedagogical communication is a professional communication of a teacher with students in the classroom and outside it (in the process of training and education), which has certain pedagogical functions and is aimed at creating a favorable psychological climate, as well as another kind of psychological optimization of educational activities and relations between the teacher and the student.

One of the criteria for productive pedagogical communication is the creation of a favorable psychological climate, the formation of certain interpersonal relationships in the study group. Interpersonal relations in the study group should really be formed by the teacher purposefully. At the same time, at certain - higher - stages, their main source is the self-development of the team. But at the initial stages, the central place in the formation of a high level of interpersonal relations belongs to the teacher. No wonder the poets of the Ancient East said that students are like a fruit garden, and a teacher is like a gardener. At first, the trees are weak and their life depends entirely on the hassle of the gardener, but then, having become stronger, they grow themselves and bear sweet fruits.

The study of S.V. Kondratieva analyzes the relationship between the level of understanding by the teacher of students and the characteristic structure of pedagogical influences. The results of the study are presented in the table.

As you can see, in the structure of the impact of teachers of a high level of activity, the first place is taken by influences of an organizing nature, and among a teacher of a low level of activity, discipline. If the teacher does not pay enough attention to the organization of students, then later he has to spend time and energy on maintaining discipline. Disorder occurs where there is no organization. It can be said differently. Disorder does not arise because people are anarchistic and chaotic, but because their activities are poorly organized.

In the course of the study described above, it was found that the average number of influences per teacher for a high level of activity is 17, and for a teacher of a low level of activity - 69. Thus, with a high level of activity, the effects are less, but they are more effective in themselves.

Analyzing the research data, it remains only to be amazed at how teachers of a low level of activity manage to realize 69 verbal influences on students in 45 minutes of a lesson. Probably, during the lesson, numerous remarks, instructions, etc., sound continually.

Effective pedagogical communication is always aimed at creating a positive "I-concept" of the personality, at developing the student’s self-confidence, in his strengths, in his potential. To confirm what a great contribution teacher can make to the development of positive self-esteem and self-confidence in a child, we present the results of one experiment. This experience, conducted at an American school by psychologist R. Rosenthal, became a classic. He consisted of the following. The psychologist tested schoolchildren on various scales of intelligence, and then randomly selected one out of every five regardless of the test results and announced to teachers that these very few children showed the highest level of intelligence, level of ability and that in the future they will show the highest results in school. And at the end of the school year, he repeated testing of these same children and, strangely enough, it turned out that those whom the psychologist chose at random and praised as the most capable, really learn better than others. The results of this experiment indicate that the “I-concept” depends on the social environment of the child, on the characteristics of the attitude towards him in the process of pedagogical communication.

The attitude that the psychologist gave to the teachers was passed on to children in several directions. First: the teacher believed that the child was really capable, and began to discern a potential in him that earlier, without instructions from the side, could go unnoticed. Having discovered such abilities, he will repeatedly give the student a positive verbal assessment; and praise stimulates the child’s positive attitude towards himself, self-confidence. Second: believing in the potential of the child, the teacher, most likely, will count on the child as the most capable in the educational process. This will be reflected in his communication with the student not only at the speech level, but also in the organization of such substantive interaction that allows you to effectively develop these abilities.

This phenomenon is called the Pygmalion effect, which goes back to the famous ancient myth of the sculptor, sculpting a statue of the beautiful Galatea and reviving it with the power of his love. Treating the statue as a living woman did a miracle. The “ Pygmalion effect ” is formulated as follows: if one treats an event or phenomenon as really accomplished, it actually happens. Let us project this pattern on our topic “ Self-concepts ”. So, if we treat the child as capable, responsible, disciplined and make it clear to him - we create the prerequisites for him to actually become one. Otherwise, a negative attitude will trigger the same mechanism of self-fulfilling prediction (the “Pygmalion effect”), but in the opposite direction. The child will feel bad about himself, and the teacher will thereby lay the foundation for his future inferiority complex.

The fruitful pedagogical communication of one of its goals also sets the task of increasing the level of interpersonal relations in the real collective of students. It is very difficult to solve this problem, not knowing the real value orientations of the collective as a whole and specific individual in it. According to research, the most attractive qualities that determine interpersonal relationships and mutual sympathies of students are responsiveness, goodwill, sincerity, fidelity to the word, as well as a number of qualities associated with the willful sphere of personality.

A positive attitude towards the student’s personality and a system of promotion methods are an important part of pedagogical communication. However, the promotion itself can be both effective and ineffective. Criteria and signs of effective and ineffective encouragement in pedagogical communication are presented in the table (according to P. Massen, J. Conger):

Ineffective promotion

• 1.    It is carried out constantly. It is carried out from case to case

• 2.    Accompanied by an explanation that it is worthy of encouragement. Done in general terms

• 3.    The teacher is interested in student success. The teacher shows minimal formal attention to student success.

• 4.    Teacher encourages certain results. The teacher notes participation in the work in general

• 5.    Informs the student of the significance of the results achieved. Gives the student information about his achievements, not emphasizing their importance

• 6.    Focuses the student on the ability to organize work in order to achieve good results. Orientes the student to compare their results with the results of others, to the competition

• 7.    The teacher compares the student’s past and present achievements. Student achievements are compared to others.

These results, of course, reflect positive aspects in interpersonal relationships and student values. The teacher can and should rely in his work on the existing system of positive values of students. It is possible to increase the level of interpersonal relations in a group, using as a basis the ideas about the system of positive personality traits that have already developed in the team. The teacher should notice and encourage the manifestation of these qualities in the interpersonal relations of students among themselves, focus on them, consider them as a value in the process of their own pedagogical communication, do not forget about the place that these qualities occupy in the perception of another person as a person, etc.

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