What are your main take away lessons from the assigned reading this week? Describe and explain.

Chapter 2

The reading from this chapter has delved into aspects of self, perception, and communication. There are perceptions that people uphold about themselves. This tends to vary from one circumstance to another. The aspect is likely to affect the way people communicate. Someone that considers himself/herself to be superior will communicate in a different way compared to someone that views themselves as being inferior. The chapter has tried to showcase this by providing a favorable example of self-concept; self-esteem. “Self-esteem has a powerful effect on the way people communicate. People with high self-esteem are more likely to communicate than people with low self-esteem” (Adler et al., 2014, p.42). This is because they think highly of others and there is the expectation that they will be accepted. Individuals with high self-esteem find it easy to communicate with people from different backgrounds since they do not pay much attention to what others think about them. This makes it easy for such individuals to break varied barriers of communication.

The section on perceiving others was very informative with regards to education too. According to Adler et al. (2014), “we organize our perceptions of other people using perceptual schema, cognitive frameworks that allow us to give order to the information we have selected” (P.49). The four types of schema hat are used to classify others include role constructs, physical constructs, psychological constructs and interaction constructs. These perceptions are likely to affect the way that people communicate with each other. The moment you have perceived someone as being stupid, it would be difficult to take such an individual serious while you interact with them regardless of the message they are trying to pass around.

Chapter 11

This reading has concentrated on the preparation and presentation of speeches. Adler et al., (2014) have outlined that it is important to determine the purpose of the speech as this goes a long way in deciding the information that will be integrated. Stating the thesis has also come out as an important element since the audience has an idea of what to expect as the speech is being delivered. Every speaker has to analyze the audience to adopt remarks that are pertinent to the characteristics of the given audience. Among the types of delivery that are available for speech presentation there is extemporaneous, impromptu, manuscript and memorized delivery. Most people have the tendency of focusing more on the body section of a speech hence neglecting the introduction and conclusion sections. It is important to focus on the introduction since this is what the audience use to decide on whether they will pay attention to the entire speech, while the conclusion contains the information that the audience is most likely to remember after the speech is over.

How will they affect the way you communicate?

The week’s readings are likely to affect the way I communicate in one way or another. I have realized that how I perceive myself is likely to affect even how I communicate with other people. This will prompt me to showcase aspects of high self-esteem at all times regardless of the circumstances. In my career path, I am likely to come across people with high status in the society, and this should not diminish my self-esteem as it would create barriers to communication. When it comes to perceiving others, I have some changes to make too. I have realized that I easily form an opinion about people based on the superficial elements that are observable. It becomes difficult to establish positive relationships with such individuals since even the communication is not appropriate. I will now take the initiative of being more open-minded to boost my interactions with others.

When it comes to preparation and presentation of speeches, it is something that I will be called upon to execute in my professional life every now and then. Given that I will be encountering people from different backgrounds and status, chapter 11 reading has instilled some ideas on how I should approach this process. I have learned the importance that the introduction and conclusion have on a speech. I am among the people that used to focus more on the body section at the expense of the conclusion and introduction.

In what ways do the concepts in the videos and readings relate to your professional life in education?

The PowerPoint was more of a summary of the content entailed in the week’s readings. There was the provision of videos that showed a correlation to my professional life. In the video “Embracing otherness, embracing myself”, Thandie Newton asserts that people have the tendency of defining themselves based on the expectations of others. This is something that affects me to some extent.  It is likely to have an effect on my professional life since my self-esteem will be dependent on others on numerous occasions. “Empathy Practice” on the other hand informs on the importance of not only listening with the ears but using other elements. This is something that can apply in all professions. This is because there are times when people might say one thing, but they mean something different. In “The power of Introverts” by Susan Cain, I have been able to learn that being an introvert in my professional life is okay. This is because people usually work best in environments that they are more comfortable with. It has taught me that I should not always strive to be extroverted.

 
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