International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Because the ability to communicate is considered a major – perhaps even the primary – defining characteristic of humanity, people assume that, throughout human history, elders have taught the young this essential survival skill. Despite agreement on the importance of learning to communicate, there is no consensus about the particular goals of communication education or even about how people learn. People in many parts of the world and for long stretches of history have assumed that communicative competence emerges almost naturally through innate predispositions and imitation. In other cultural and historical settings, communication abilities have been fostered through informal forms of coaching or apprenticeships that were specific to the context of use. Yet others have believed that communication skills and knowledge were subjects that could and should be taught formally or at least explicitly in educational institutions. The term “communication education” generally applies to these structured curricula. Discussions of the goals for teaching communication in schools center on the philosophical and ideological underpinnings of the enterprise. From whatever goals are established, educators derive their specific instructional objectives, standards, and implicit or explicit pedagogies. Although multiple goals are present in most educational settings, the four following categories of ... log in or subscribe to read full text