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Re: communicating


Might we all agree that "quality of communication" is some kind of product
of "clarity of explanation" and "care in listening"? Thus, communication
*can* occur even when the explanation is lousy if the listener cares
enough and may not occur at *all* even with the clearest explanation if
the listener doesn't care.

Insufficient. Suppose I am an elementary French student trying to learn
French with minimal conversational skills. You are my teacher and brilliantly
and clearly explain some aspects of French grammar to me in French. I listen
carefully, and catch every fifth word.

We had clarity of explanation and care in listening. The student just didn't
have an appropriate ability to translate what was happening into something
personally meaningful. It was gibberish to the student.

Now in my physics class I teach algebra and calculus-based descriptions of
the natural world to people for whom mathematics is a minimal conversational
skill language. I often use greek :^) and other foreign alphabets,
I rely on student's phenomenological experiences to interpret the math,
and like many other posters to this list I find my students have fewer and
weaker phenomenological experiences than I (playing with batteries
or lenses or crystal diodes etc).

I think what's missing from the Mallinckrodt definition is some shared
common base of experience and language that enables meaningful communication
(not just the reception and transmission of noise) to take place. If there
is no way to interpret the signal, there is little communication.

Dan M

Might we all agree that "quality of communication" is some kind of product
of "clarity of explanation" and "care in listening"? Thus, communication
*can* occur even when the explanation is lousy if the listener cares
enough and may not occur at *all* even with the clearest explanation if
the listener doesn't care.

When given a choice, I prefer to proffer clear explanations under the
assumption that it maximizes the likelihood of communication, however, I
have noticed that "understanding" (which may be a more rigorous
requirement than "communication") is often enhanced when the "clarity of
explanation" is poor probably because it requires *more* "care in
listening." Did I just hear someone in Boise suggest the word
"constructivism"?

John
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A. John Mallinckrodt email: mallinckrodt@csupomona.edu
Professor of Physics voice: 909-869-4054
Cal Poly Pomona fax: 909-869-5090
Pomona, CA 91768 office: Building 8, Room 223
web: http://www.sci.csupomona.edu/~mallinckrodt/