Importance of Communication Skills Development in Higher Education

This article discusses the significance of communication skills development in higher education for academic and personal growth. It covers various types of communication skills, their importance, and ways to improve them. The article also highlights the benefits of good communication skills in personal and professional life.

Academic and personal
development

Table of Contents
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................2
1. Communication skills development is crucial to be an effective student in higher education
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REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
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MAIN BODY
1. Communication skills development is crucial to be an effective student in higher
education
During higher education, students get to learn different ways to learn new things, various
skills and new communication. Students can cultivate the ways to think for solving the problems
and they are taught to move out of their comfort zone in the classrooms. Education is a must for
the students in every aspect of the life and it is said that being educated is the main asset of the as
the students as they get to know about the values and their rights. There are various skills which
are essential such as problem solving skills, communication skills, creativity skills, team worki
skills, writing skills, self regulation and initiative skills (Owen, 2018).
Communication skills development is crucial to be an effective student in higher education
Communication is said to be a mutual interaction between two or more people and to
convey the message properly to others. Communication skills provides assistance in both the
personal and professional life as it supports in transferring the message for the purpose of better
understanding. When a person can not convey the message properly. In order to succeed in the
higher education, good communication skills are necessary such as in the selection process of the
interview. Communication is the main tool to attract the success to get rid of using the incorrect
ways to convey the message. For the student's academic success, they are required to
communicate well and build relationships with fellow students. It furthers allows the students to
learn from the teachers about various subjects and topics to get the high marks. The students can
get to learn the quality to build healthy relationships with fellow students by learning to express
their emotions with their friends and this will lead to build strong friendships (Kirca and
Bademli, 2019).
As communication, has the ability to convert the strong friendships into lifetime
relationships. It is one of the common problems for the students they do not feel confident while
communicating with others. The communication skills allow the students to work in team by
being more productive with the team mates. It will going to help the students to earn the respect
of the team members with long term benefits. Good communication skills make the studmet
more clear and confident as there will be less chances of misunderstanding and poor
communication. It is necessary for the students to learn communication skills at the initial level
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so that, it will be used in career and life. Students choose the professions as per their choices so
in that situation they are required to communicate well for the purpose of professionalism and
interacting. This skill is responsible for having a good language such as proper hand gestures or
eye to eye contact. The level of memory can be improved by communicating the ideas and
opinions well with others in order to achieve the dreams to live a successful life (Shorey and
et.al., 2020). If the students choose career in the various fields such as business, leaders or
political it is a must to communicate properly with the audience to create impact and influence
them. It helps the students to be prepared for the future by learning such skills and being more
productive (Hansen, Carnett, and Tullis, 2018). Communication skill is the most important as it
is said that those have good communication skills will never be underestimated and the more
skills student get to learn, the more successful they will become in their life. In order to grow in
life, excellent communication skills are preferred to get the success. These skills are not only
limited to professional life but it is also important for the personal life too. Being a student, it is
esstentail to understand the feelings and thoughts of others. While learning communication
skills students get to learn how to present themselves, how to debate and how to analyse the
things in different manner and all that will not be possible without the proper communication
skills. With this the students get to learn about the feeling of the others and be more polite with
parents, teachers, friends and fellow students. The students can be more energetic and open
minded by learning such skills and they can affect the society in a positive manner. This is
directly linked to make the students being more productive and being more trustworthy with all
the relations such as family members, teachers or team mates that will boost their level of
confidence that will impact the education in a positive manner. The presence of mind is
important for the purpose of sharpening the memory process of the students so that their dreams
can be achieved and their vocabulary too ( Xiao, 2018). The main foundation of the
communication skills is trust, honesty and trustfulness. In today's competitive world , students
are required to be all rounder on order to compete with other students and to match the pace of
development. Life will be less stressful when the students will be able to communicate better
about the daily chores at the best optimum level. As the students have any doubt or having a
tough time in understanding by the teachers then they can make use of communication in order
to understand the concept. It is also linked with the skills for the professionals such as by
communicating well the students can learn how to present in the upcoming future life and it will
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support the students in developing themselves as a leader in the workplace. Communication is
linked with all the aspects of the life such as personal, social, family, professional and career.
Moreover, this skill allows the students to transfer their feelings and opinion to the other
people with the help of words and expressive ways. To be more successful reading, writing, and
listening skills are important for the students as these are the part of the curriculum which are
adopted for the development of the students. This is a skill which can be developed by using
various techniques such as-
 By paying more attention to what others are saying and by being a good listener that can
give the clarity of ideas for the purpose of better understanding.
 This skill can be developed by encouraging the students to take initiative and keep them
engaged in the various conversation as some students are shy or feel awkward to talk
with others so, various reading activities or games can be conducted to improve their
communication skills (DeBlasio and et.al., 2019).
 Watching films can also help the students to develop the level of communication due to
the scenes taking place in the movie and under this they can pause the video or rewind
whenever it will be required. That will create a main impact on the mind of the students
by learning words to express themselves.
 By making classroom a safe place the students feel comfortable to share their feeling with
teachers and students. A positive environment is important for the students to improve
their communication skills and to get the academic success.
 By teaching students about the teamwork that will help in doing more work collectively
and team activities. This will lead to communicate more and new level of cooperation.
 The teachers can make sure to get the students chance to share their opinions in the
classrooms because when the students share their point of view they feel more
comfortable and they will be able to speak on any topic.
 The teachers can ask for positive feedback by the students about the problems they are
facing regarding tasks and concepts that will directly build the confidence of students and
lead to bring harmony in the classroom.
 By properly listening to the students for answering their insecurities or doubts and it is
one of the best way to enhance their communication skills. The students will care more
about the feelings of others just by listening proactively.
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 By using technology that will prepare the students for the upcoming future for a better
professional field. When the level of advancement will be increased then students will be
updated about new technologies (Crompton and Burke, 2018).
 Various workshops, exercises and competitions can be conducted to improve the overall
communication skills of the students. That will give the opportunity to learn more about
effective communication so that the interaction can be made with all. Group presentations
are also important in the overall development of the students. It can bring new
opportunities so that they can present their opinions and work together to fulfil a common
goal (Brown and Bylund, 2008).
 By talking regularly with the students can encourage them to begin or join in
conversation so that they can open up with them during class activity or games.
There are various type of communication skills which are explained below-
 Non-verbal communication skills- Non-verbal communication skills includes body
language, gestures, expressions in order to communicate and transfer the message. Under
this the facial expressions, postures and voice tone are the main tool of the
communication. Some communications are done in non-verbal form and it is one of the
honey way of communication that can be faked or pretended. That is why good non-
verbal communication skills plays an important role in both the personal and professional
life.
 Verbal communication skills- Verbal communication skills are crucial for the main
purpose of passing the message to other people with the help of spoken words. It is
further divided into oral and written communication where written communication
includes texts, letters, messages, posters and many others under which the information is
exchanged with the written document whereas oral communication includes face to face
conversation, voice notes, chat rooms and many others. It is one of the common type of
communication that can be performed by talking face to face or video conferencing or
over the phone. Some students are good at communicating in their personal lives but they
lack in profession lives.
 Visual communication skills-Visual communication skills are used in order to represent
the information in true sense efficiently such as it can be a interactive content,
infographics or graphics. Such as maps, drawings, charts, colours, designs and many
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others. It takes a lot of effort and hard work to become a good visual communicator. It is
one of the intelligent way to communicate (Bowen, 2018).
 Written communication skills- Such as books, emails, internet or websites in which the
communication is delivered and received with the help of printed or digital media. This
skill is more important as it is recorded and students refer it again. It lasts longer as
compared to the speech.
In the end it can be concluded that communicating well is essential for all the aspects and
sector s. When the students get to learn about communication skills they can improve their level
of performance at academy or at workplace. This will directly build better rapport with everyone
and those who are highly skilled can make more money. The students will be more confident in
transferring the information well to the others.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Bowen, H. ed., 2018. Investment in learning: The individual and social value of American higher
education.
Brown, R.F. and Bylund, C.L., 2008. Communication skills training: describing a new
conceptual model. Academic medicine, 83(1), pp.37-44.
Crompton, H. and Burke, D., 2018. The use of mobile learning in higher education: A systematic
review. Computers & Education, 123, pp.53-64.
DeBlasio, D., Real, F.J., Ollberding, N.J. and Klein, M.D., 2019. Provision of Parent Feedback
via the Communication Assessment Tool: Does It Improve Resident Communication
Skills?. Academic pediatrics, 19(2), pp.152-156.
Hansen, S.G., Carnett, A. and Tullis, C.A., 2018. Defining early social communication skills: A
systematic review and analysis. Advances in Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 2(1),
pp.116-128.
Kirca, N. and Bademli, K., 2019. Relationship between communication skills and care behaviors
of nurses. Perspectives in psychiatric care, 55(4), pp.624-631.
Owen, H., 2018. The handbook of communication skills.
Shorey, S., Ang, E., Ng, E.D., Yap, J., Lau, L.S.T. and Chui, C.K., 2020. Communication skills
training using virtual reality: A descriptive qualitative study. Nurse Education
Today, 94, p.104592.
Xiao, J., 2018. On the margins or at the center? Distance education in higher education. Distance
Education, 39(2), pp.259-274.
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