Relating Communication Competence to Teaching Effectiveness: Implication for Teacher Education

Abstract

There is wide practice of attributing students’ achievement to teacher effectiveness. Some school authorities take this further by querying teachers over poor performances of their students. Although the teacher is just one factor among many that determine students’ performances, the teachers’ attributes and qualities are very important in the teaching and learning processes. Thus, it is important that teacher education emphasizes those qualities that will make the teacher more effective. The teacher has need of knowledge of content and communication skills to be effective. While several attributes have been used to describe an effective teacher, content knowledge and communication skills remain outstanding. This paper posits that teacher education should emphasize both content knowledge and communication skills instead of relegating communication skills because one cannot be achieved without the other. It follows up the contention by conceptualizing communication, exploring teacher communication competence, and finally suggesting the introduction of Teacher Communication Skills (TCS) course in the curricula of teacher education across levels.

Keywords: Communication competence, Teacher effectiveness, Teacher Communication Skills (TCS)