Effective Communication - the Importance of Listening Actively

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Too often leaders underperform because they fail to adapt their management styles and practices to fit a multicultural environment (Neeley and Kaplan, 2014). This emphasises the need to develop cultural awareness in a way that is not costly to an organization’s efficiency and work ethic. The CEO of a global technology company realised this when numerous reports of friction between global offices was received, especially where individualistic cultures interacted with collectivist cultures. The senior leader recognised the problem stemmed from insensitivity to cultural differences and intolerance on the part of managers. For example, one leader in Europe found it frustrating to never receive a clear "yes" or "no" during a telephone conversation with a colleague in Indonesia. The manager failed to take into account the importance of building a relationship, the value of face-to-face communication, and the impact of cultural differences. Lacking that awareness, the manager projected the home-country norms onto his peer. Several such scenarios lead to integration of different cultural awareness elements during trainings that eventually improved coordination and reduced friction. This example accentuates the importance of training managers throughout a firm to ensure each culture is equally respected and understood to avoid communication gaps that are highly costly to a firm’s performance.

Impact of Technology in Communication

With high interdependence and ever-increasing globalisation, technology has become an integrated part of an individual’s communication

Mindmap- Creativity; Planning; Critical Thinking

Mind mapping originated from the theory of radiant thinking, or the full brain actively thinking of associations driven from a central concept (Buzan & Buzan, 1996). Creating new ideas and problem solving emerges when the mind is allowed to think radiantly or freely. The technique of mind mapping is a graphic illustration using words, images, colors, and branches that extend from a central idea illustrating finer details and associations in a nonlinear format. It emphasizes the use of diagrams and pictures that enhance memory and cultivate knowledge (Buzan & Buzan, 1996). This strategy is easy for the novice learner to apply and encourages self-expression and exploration of a concept by the student. There are no limits to associations and connections of the concept. Mind mapping allows the student to build upon existing knowledge when new information is presented that enables meaningful learning to take place (Buzan and Buzan, 1996 and Davies, 2010; Spencer, Anderson, & Ellis, 2013).

Creating learning experiences that facilitate reflection, knowledge building, problem solving, inquiry, and critical thinking is vital. Using mind maps as an active learning strategy is an innovative technique to facilitate student learning. D’Antoni, Pinto Zipp, and Olsen (2010) studied the use of mind mapping to assist with the retrieval of information and critical thinking among medical students. One group used mind mapping and the other used typical note taking during class sessions. Results showed the successful use of mind mapping for retrieval of short term information and retention of new information.

There is a lack of research examining the value of using mind maps among associate degree nursing students as an alternative to lecturing, creating the need to understand the usefulness of this strategy. With the aim of promoting a student-centered learning environment, the use of mind mapping was explored in a cooperative learning (CL) environment. Cooperative learning is defined as “learning in small groups to facilitate students working together to optimize their own, as well as, each other’s learning” (Alexander, Lindow, & Schock, 2008, p. 18). The purpose of this article is to evaluate the effectiveness of mind mapping as an active learning strategy.

(Rosciano, 2015)

Reflection: (Allan, 2015)

When students reflect upon their learning, they engage in a potentially transformative act of responding to, connecting with, and analyzing an experience, event, process, or product. Reflection is one way to bridge the divide between thought and action—an opportunity for students to describe their internal processes, evaluate their challenges, and recognize their triumphs in ways that would otherwise remain unarticulated. Dewey (1910) argued that reflective thinking can lead to powerful educational transformations. Building on Dewey's work, Schön, 1987 and Schön, 1995 demonstrated the importance of reflective practices for engaged learning in a variety of contexts. Schön (1987) identified “reflection-in-action” as a form of critical thinking: “rethinking” past knowledge or actions and “further thinking that affects what we do” in the immediate task and in similar situations (p. 29).

At its basic level, reflection allows students to move beyond a product-centered approach and focus on the learning process.

Reflection provides at least three things to learners (all of which fall under the mantle of metacognition, although she does not use that term): an understanding of learning goals, an awareness of strategies to reach said goals, and a way of figuring out if a learner has met those goals (p. 6).

The seemingly simple act of reflection can become a transformative, powerful practice that produces at least three benefits: reinforcing and extending student learning, improving assessment to better understand our programs, and facilitating faculty engagement in professional development.

While reflection has had substantial attention in higher education, the discussion and implementation of reflection seems to take place in insolated, sometimes contradictory ways. Numerous fields not directly connected to writing or general education employ reflective practice: teacher education (Gay and Kirkland, 2003 and Tillman, 2003), film studies (Blasco, 2011), nursing (Craft, 2005), medicine (Bonovitz, 2010), biology (Balgopal & Montplaisir, 2011). Several scholars have addressed the pedagogy of reflection for higher education in broad terms, although differing views exist on what it is, how to teach it, and in what contexts it can best be used.

(Peterson et al., 2010) Effectiveness:

Of students who enroll in 4-year universities, 25% never finish. Precipitating causes of early departure

include poor academic