Communication Self-Assessment

Doing this week’s application has helped me to identify where I stand as a communicator. I learned that my communication anxiety level was moderate, my level of verbal aggressiveness was significant and my level of listening was classified group 1 people orientated.

I had my husband and coworker to both evaluate me using the same assessments. To my surprise they both rated me as significant on a verbal aggressiveness scale, moderate on communication anxiety and a group 1 listener.

This was a shocker to me, to know that someone else viewed my communication skills the same as I do. I was a bit disappointed with one of my results. To know that my words can be offensive towards others did not sit well with me, although I have always been a person to speak my mind and be through with it.

I expected my husband to score similar to me, but not my colleague. It was glad to know that she viewed me as being a people person. She knows that I love to communicate one on one, but when it has to done publicly I tend to tense up a bit.

Learning about myself has taught me where my strengths and weakness are, and how I can learn to correct the areas that need improvement.  

 

Cultural Diversity

I think that I do communicate differently with people from other cultures depending on the occasion. I enjoy being around people of different cultures because I can learn from them. However, there have been times where I have become irritated with being around people from other cultures. One experience I remember is when I was in undergrad. I had a foreign teacher whom I couldn’t understand at all. The verbal communication between the two of us was horrible. The way I passed this course was from notes. Luckily, he issued out notes that were typed up to all students.

It is hard communicating with someone who doesn’t share the same culture of you. You all have nothing in common which makes it harder to communicate. It is possible to communicate with people of different cultures, but it may take a few adjustments. When communicating with someone of another culture you must be careful of their language, know what’s considered offensive to their culture, and be aware of any hand gestures and body language they use. The main concern is being open-minded!      

Nonverbal & Verbal Communications

I watched the television show Love That Girl. The show I watched wasn't that hard for me to understand without sound. During the beginning of the show a group of people were sitting around socializing and laughing. It was obvious they were friends. Throughout the show they would gather together having drinks and playing cards. Appearing to be an old male friend came back into the picture bringing a woman with him. During a party an agrument took place. Later in the show that woman no longer appeared. Obviously, it was related to the party because she wasn't seen after that and that old male friend was spending more time with one of the other women from the party. I assumed they used to date and wanted to pick back up on their relationship.
After re watching in sound I learned that everyone was friends. The party they threw was for the guy and his fiancee coming into town. Things went sour at the party because of the comments made about the soon to be groom and his old love. The fiancee was confused of their past and got angry. I was right when I assumed the dude did want to have a relationship with his old friend girl.

I believe this show was easy for me to understand because I read the body language. I paid attention to the characters and their behavior as well as observing their facial expressions.

Competency in Communication

The one person that I feel shows competency in their communication is my grandfather/pastor. When he speaks he is very clear and uses appropriate tone. His messages are always easy to follow along with because he relates his Christ messages to everyday life. Always giving examples of how the two are linked. He makes eye contact with the audience, has a great posture(not slouching), very presentable in clothing. He is very neat and well groomed. His passion for ministering to others about God has opened opportunities for him to speak at other churches, funerals and other events.
My grandfather apperance resembles his character. I would love to model his style. I have learned a lot from him. I've become inspired by his communication skills and the way he represents his self.

Final Research Blog

During this course I have learned how to identify reliable research. I learned of the different types of research and methods that can be used when doing research. It has all been a challenge but I do believe that I gained valuable information that can later be used.

Two of my biggest challenges I had was completing my hypotheses and identifying the independent/dependent variables.  Although I understood the book definition of the variables it became confusing when I had to identify them on my own.

This course has made me realize the seriousness of research. I knew it was a complicating process nut I didn’t know it offered so many challenges. The process can be conducted by many individuals to prove the validity of a research question.

I learned that research is something that has to be collected over a period of time. The information can be collected from many sources. Depending on what you are researching you may have to cautious of code of ethics when observing or interviewing.

 

 

Around the World

I chose to explore the European Early Childhood Education Research Association website. EECERA is an international contributor to the developing field of early childhood. On this site I learned that the Europeans encourage paradigms and methodologies in early childhood studies reflecting upon legends. This site is known to work closely with Special Interest Groups by supporting their collaborations.  In Europe the EECERA host an annual conference where it’s recogonized as the largest organized early childhood research conference.

 

I enjoyed this site because I leaned how Europe hosts the largest early childhood research conference. I knew that other countries were interested in early childhood, but I didn’t know it was so popular. This international organization promotes multi-disciplinary research on early childhood and policies and practice in the early childhood field.

 

Research on Children and Families

Technology has grown so much within the past few years. Many schools require that children use the Internet to complete assignments and projects. While some students are using the Internet to browse social networks there are many that use it for educational purposes. There are online database and educational games available. My 9 year old sister loves to use the computer but hates doing homework. In order to get her focused with school, I decided to make homework fun for her. She uses many math game cd-roms to help her learn the required material for class. My mom and I noticed that her grades have improved with allowing her to use the computer and play educational games.
I believe this was a great technique for us to try and it has helped my family a lot.