1.

Human aspects of communication

i. What is communication?
ii. Objectives of communication
iii. How to utilize various techniques of communication
2. The role of media in human ecology extension.
3. Appropriate instructional material.
i. Development of training manuals for the community.
ii. Training techniques – tasks
Assignments
iii. Facilitation techniques.
iv. Characteristics of a good training manual.

What is communication?

Def. 1-It is a process of giving receiving or exchange of information, opinions or

ideas by writing, speech or visual means or combination of the three, so that the
materials communicated is completely understood by everyone concerned.

Def. 2 - It is a process by which information is passed from one person to another

by means of previously agreed symbols which must be accepted, recognized by
other people. The symbols includes; gestures and drawings.

Def. 3- Communication therefore is the exchange of facts, ideas opinions or

emotions by two or more persons.

The process of communication ensures that the message intended to be shared by

the sender and the receiver is clearly understood.

Communication involves:

i. Exchange of ideas
ii. Ideas should be clearly reproduced to the receiver.
iii. The transmitter is assured of accurate replications of the ideas by
feedback.

Communication objectives (WHY)

1
 - Information sharing
- Awareness raising
- Behaviour change and capacity building.

The intention of communication is to empower people with the right information to

be able to change to a better situation.

In community development, communication is a key component of sustainable

development.

Therefore mobilizing community members for development, communication must

be effective.

Communication for development.

Communication for development means people centered development. It empowers

the rural poor and the marginalized to give them the information and knowing their
entitlements for social justice.

Communication for development is people friendly and should bring about positive
change in lives of people, because it should be able to influence the policies on
development i.e. The voices of the poor and the marginalized is brought into the
mainstream and the development debate.

Communication for development encourages meaningful participation in decision

making and management of information.

Communication and development helps to sensitize policy makers , because it

adopts a bottom–up approach.

A person responsible for leading or co-coordinating the work of a group

Communication for development builds pace and helps in reducing conflicts ,

because people are encouraged to share their views.

When communicating with community members:

i. Make sure that the communication is inclusive.

ii. Ensure that there is conducive environment for communication.

2
 iii. People should have credibility and trust in you.

When communicating effectively you need to clarify issues so that people can get
encouraged to participate.

Importance of effective communication

a) It helps to establish and maintain a good social and working relationship in

the community.
b) It helps in sharing of ideas and opinion and enhances diffusion of good ideas
while irrelevant ideas are thrown out.
c) It enhances participation of every community member towards the
achievement of the goals of community or rural development i.e it makes
people active in their own development.
d) It promotes, strengthening the capacity of individuals within the community
to accomplish the communication and set goals.
e) Motivates the community to become agents of their own development
because it changes their attitudes towards issues of concern in the
community.
f) It moves from a focus of informing and persuading people to change their
behaviour or attitude to solve a common identified problem.
g) People will identify what is needed to support the initiative in terms of
partnership, knowledge and material condition.

QUIZ

1. Is there a significant relationship between communication and effective

communication for development?
2. Will effective communication lead to citizen participation in community
development?

NB: Mobilization of community members would be easy as they would have been
made undergo the reasons of their being mobilizer and this will subsequently
lead to active citizen participation in the programs of community development.

3
 h) Community members would take ownership of development initiatives in
their hands and that good and active communication would foster community
development.

Community leaders or community development agents should be effective

circulation of information among different participants by using community
tools and channels appropriate to the groups involved:
- Posters
- Text messages
- TV
- RADIOS
- Loud speakers
- Blogs (internet)

How to develop community training materials

Training materials are a necessary part of any community development activity

that involves; knowledge , acquisitions and retention. The best approach to
developing instructional materials is to start by asking or examining the training
plan and available resources.

Depending on the learning objectives and length of the training program, training
materials may include workbooks, manuals, computer based lesson and audio
visual aids.

The following strategies are important in developing a training material.

a) Identify the objectives of the training program

This will help in designing training materials basing on what is needed by the
program. It also helps to know specific activities that would be carried out to
achieve a specific objective. Objectives will help in identification of indicators.

b) Develop a training plan.

A plan is an overview, outline of how training will be approached. It includes the

schedule, key learning objectives in a list of available resources.

4
Estimate how much time to spend on each learning objectives. This will assist in the
development of training materials to ensure that equal time is allocated to
concepts of equal importance.

c) Create a list of necessary training materials.

Ensure that all the training materials e.g. white boards, flip charts, felt pens, writing
materials, stickers, stick notes, projector.

d) Write an explanation of course skills to be learnt.

It is an overview of what participants in a workshop can expect to learn after

progressing through the training materials.

e) Dedicate a separate section to each learning objective.

After every session, reflect back and assess what has been learnt so far. This will
inform the facilitator the extent to which specific objectives have been achieved.

f) Integrate visual element

This is the use of graphics, tables, video to reinforce important concepts.

g) incorporate review exercises

This is very important in accommodating various learning styles. This can include
true / false or multiple choice questions to reinforce content e.g case study of
group to encourage brainstorming.

h) Establish an assessment component

For example if using videos or presentations to train community members, the

assessor should asking them to write down their impressions.

i) Ask learners for feedback

Evaluate the effectiveness of the training materials by asking training program

participants to share their opinions. It is advisable to develop training feedback
forms which contain questions about organizations, clarify, variety and usefulness
and may be used to revise and improve the materials.

5
Why effective communication in a community training

1. The process and content of communication is owned by community since it is

a participatory exercise.
2. Communication gives a voice to previously unheard community members.
3. Communities become their own agents of change
4. The communication process is x- trained by debates and negotiation on
issues that the community.
5. Emphasis is placed on the outcomes that go beyond individual behaviours to
widely recognized social needs.

Qualities of good community facilitators.

a) He or she should be an open – minded person and be able to ask open

ended questions e.g what did you learn from the role play? Not : Did you
learn ABCD from the role play ? X
b) Listening skills is very important . Listen carefully to the communication and
four any feelings that may accompany it.
c) Should be a good communicator – understand the language you use well ,
use the right words when training people.
d) Should know how to adhere to the time schedule.
e) Should focus on developing people’s skills, and not just knowledge.
f) Should be able to make learning process active through asking questions.
g) Make the course materials clear by slowly and using understandable
language to at participants.
h) Have interpersonal skills, know how to relate with your participants, be
sociable, create a good rapport.
i) Be flexible and open to other people’s views
j) Dress well

Significance of effective communication.

In communication, the rural people at the centre aimed at giving development

initiative and therefore effective communication is important because:

a) It encourage people to participate in their own development.

6
 b) Promote collection and exchange of information among all those concerned
in planning an development initiative with the aim of reaching an agreement
or solving problems of the community.
c) Its an effective andessential tool for the establishment and maintenance of a
good social working relationship.
d) It helps in strengthening the capacityof individual within the community to
accomplish the society; set goals .
e) It brings together all stakeholders in the community development in a
dialogue of ideas and development means actions and objectives.
f) Effective communication means moving from a focus of meaning, persuading
to ………..their behaviour or attitude a focused facilitating ……….. to solve a
common identified idea.

Importance of effective communication skills in community training.

1. Good communication skills is essential when training community members.

2. It supports the group of participated by building on atmosphere of trust and
modeling a positive attitude by assuring that confidentiality will be
maintained to protect members and allow them to talk freely without fear.
3. Help them to provide constructive and supportive feedback. Let participants
know when they have contributed something useful and interesting to the
group.
4. Ensure that the entire course content is covered for instance if participants
deviate from the topic over to address a comment during the break.
5. Helps model a positive attitude and participants will probably get tired as the
course program and need some encouragement.
6. Model effective facilitation skills. Ask open- ended questions e.g you need to
role play? But not did you learn from the role play?

Listen carefully to the communication and for the end feelings that might be
accompanied.

Respect every participants feelings, perspectives and contributors.

Adhere to the time schedule.

7
Focus on developing skills not just knowledge.

Make the learning process active by use of charts, flips, videos etc.

Make the course material clear by speaking slowly and using language that is
understood by all participants.

Strategies in effective training

There are four strategies in effective training:

- Brainstorming 1
- Case study 2
- Reading and assignment 3
- Practical exercise. 4

Brainstorming

Is a structured discussion which is mainly used to solve problems . Its purposes are:

- To teach participants not to have judgments until maximum number of

ideas have been generated.
- Train participants to listen positively to the ideas of others without making
positive comments that discourage creativity.
- In brain storming the facilitator should ensure that all participants are
equally participated. Therefore, the process of brainstorming can be most
effective if it follows the following steps:

Development of ideas

In brainstorming , quantity is the goal. The more the idea the better. Get all ideas
without evaluating them because there will be time for that later in the process.
This does not mean that quality is not important, only that when people stop to
challenge quality during creative process, it inhibits creativity put all suggestions in
flip charts of room during the exercise and these encourages participants to
develop ideas.

Create new ideas by offering alternatives e.g deleting, adding, reversing or

consolidate idea those already suggested.

8
Analysis of the ideas

In the discussion , participants should encouraged to ask for explanation of

unfamiliar ideas. The group establishes criteria for selecting the best ideas then test
the ideas against the criteria, some ideas are rejected because they do not meet
the criteria. The group is left with a list of workable options. For these they can
select the best solutions.

Action planning-

This is the final phase and it consists of the steps needed to put their adopted
solutions in operation. Make sure that everyone is involved in the action planning
phase. Give them an opportunity to participate in the learning process.

1, According to Malcom, man learns best, if they know why they are learning
something.

People often learn through experience.

People tend to view learning as an opportunity to solve problem.

People learn best when the topic is relevant to them and immediately applicable.
Therefore, you opt for the best results with people when they are fully involved in
the learning process.

Case study

It is a form of problem-based learning where you present a situation that needs a

solution. The learner is given details about situations often a historical context, the
key players are introduced, objectives and challenges outlined.

This is followed by specific examples, that which the learner then uses to analyse
the situation and determines what happens and makes recommendations. The
depth of a case depend on the lesson being taught. A case study can be two pages
or twenty or more pages. It makes the reader to think critically about the
information being presented and then develop through assessment of a situation
leading to a well thought out solution or recommendation.

Why do we use a case study?

9
1. Case study tend to focus on why and how to apply a scale or concept.
2. Case study create team building opportunities because when a team gets
together to solve a case they will have to work through different opinions,
methods and perspectives.
3. Case study are used to built problem solving skills, which help people
practice with them.
4. Used to evaluate past problem solving. People can be asked what they could
do in that situation and think about what could have been done differently.

Reading and assignments

This is where the participants are given reading materials and later on, they are
given assignments to research on using the materials, they were given to read.

The role of the facilitator is to provide necessary materials to facilitate reading

and doing of assignments. After the assignment the participants are reading and
assignments

The facilitator should encourage both individual and group assignment, however
group assignment is the most effective

The facilitator should encourage both individual and group assignment, however
group assignments is the most effective strategy because it gives participants
more discussions and generation of many ideas.

Practical exercises

It is a term of assignment given to participants, which they are supposed to do

immediately and give practical solution to the problem under discussion.

Participants can be allowed to have discussions in groups, these happens during

the training session.

Steps in developing a training manual

Training manual

10
 It is a guideline that contains the content that is to be used in a training in a
community, organisation, conference, workshops e.t.c

The following are steps used in developing a training manual.:

a) Determine the needs of the community.

A trainer should understand the needs of the community and build on these needs
while developing a training manual. Understand the objectives and goals of the
community and how the community would benefit from attaining the training .
Know the target population , the extend of the problem or the need of the
community. It will help to focus your training on their needs or problems.

Consider the duration of the training, you need to know how time is managed.

Consider the expected time of the need of the community. It wilhelp to focus your
training on their needs or problems.

Consider the duration of the training, you need to know how time is managed.

b) Consider the expected time of training.

Describe what is expected from a training programme , this will help you to
ensure that the training is realistic and appropriate for the purpose intended .

Describe the expected ……….. in behaviour, attitudes performance and knowledge

level of the participants.

Be specific measurable and clearly start objectives of the training. Once you have
described what is expected, you will be able to know the time required for every
activity that will be carried out in a training.

c) Set training priorities.

This helps to decide what training programme would be included in short and long
term training plan. You need to rank the learning outcomes and set training
priorities.

11
Ensure that you or a budget for a training and know that of you don’t have
enough , you will experience challenges and if ……. Limited budget maximize your
budget or priorities on training needs.

d) Identify training options.

This is guided by resource and cost estimate. Explain various options available for
conducting of a high priority training programme and estimate the cost of each of
the options.

This analysis will make it possible to learn how much the training is feasible (able
to be done) Its advisable to use low cost in training to help you achieve your
objectives.

Find a partner with whom you share the same vision, mission and objectives
conduct training jointly and share the cost. This option has added benefit and
advantage of building intelligent relationship.

e) Develop a budget and allocate funding.

Once you have priority, training needs to develop a budget alongside those needs
and every activity should have a budget line. This will help you to know how much
you are going to spend in every activity during the training.

f) Prepare the final training plan.

Develop a comprehensive strategic training plan for your programme. The

programme will help you manage the budget and ensures that training occurs. A
training plan should always be your reference when implementing a training.

g) Implementation

Refer to execution of the training , it also refer to putting into action the activities
that have been proposed. Ensure the personnel (the trainer or facilitators) required
for training are ready. Provide training materials such as manuals in time and
prepare participants in advance, so that when training is ready, you avoid
inconveniences in terms of attendance and time management.

12
During implementation, use various strategies such as brainstorming, case study,
practical exercise, leading and assignments, to train the participants to ensure
that the facilitators understand their roles clearly

h) Evaluation

In the manual, explain how evaluation is going to be conducted to determine the

outcome of the training. Participants are given feedback forms to fill on how they
have evaluated the training. Evaluation can be done through interviews. The
information you get from feedback forms or interviewee is used to analyze the
outcome of the training. The result of the evaluation is used to inform the organizer
and also inform future trainings.

How can a community development trainer ensure effective participation

in training?

For any training to be successful, there is need for effective participation among the
participants and the trainers. The following methods should help you in promoting
effective participation in a community.

i. Select the right method for training the participants.

Know the target group (people you intend to train) i.e. children, youth, people with
disabilities, women. Know the ability an d level of knowledge of your group.

Know the number of participants for the training and why you have selected them.

Know how much time you need to prepare for the training.

ii. What aid do you require to make the training effective

These training materials and money to facilitate the training …………. And for the
trainees. Do you have experience to use aid materials e.g the projector , flip charts,
laptops, tables to showcase items.

iii. When are you going to engage your participants.

iv. Know how to make your participants active.

13
For an effective training to take place, the participants need to be alert with high
concentration.

v. Give them group work/ activities

Use assistants to monitor the activities.

Make sure that everyone participate by going round.

Give them short time in their group work to reduce boredom.

Make your participants act as facilitators to some level , after group discussions.

When presenting ensure that they speak clearly and words must be spoken at a
suitable pace.

As they are presenting points, encourage them to use relevant examples.

The role of facilitator in effective community training

As a facilitator, preparation for training is very important to ensure smooth planning

of the training.

Make learning fun so that the trainees or participants to become enthusiastic and
participate actively in the training.

Participants will lack enthusiasm if the training is dry and dull.

The trainees would respond to simplified concepts because they want to learn
practical information about what they can do to say their problems in the
community. Trainees do not want complicated concepts and theories.

To increase their alertness, use humor because it helps to keep enthusiasm and
people are eager to learning.

Avoid telling jokes

Use attractive packaging and use materials that are well packaged and that
communicate value.

14
Professional packaging is a powerful tool for effective training as it helps to set first
impression (Impression management is how people view you at glance)

In the process of participation in a training, encourage all of them to participate.

Make you session lovely by engaging participants in learning process.Infact, try to

spend close to ……………. Of the training on group participation and encourage
everyone in the training session to speak freely andcandidly with confidence
because learning occurs when people’s feeling’s are involved.

Build self – esteem

When community members participate in training and get involved in every

aspect, they build self confidence, which later on add some self worth and self
esteem.

As a facilitator, dress appropriately, use your evidence to figure out what you wear
andbe professional in your training.

Arrive early so that you can get majorly prepared for the session.Check sitting
arrangements and make sure the set up is good for the training.

Make sure you are a good communicator, speak well , express your opinions clearly
and ensure that you are an engaging presentation style.

Be Knowledgeable- know your topic well, understand all t he concepts.

Utter questions at a level that all trainees understand.

Be experienced-and know what you are talking about.

Be devoted to people.

Their personality may vary but ensure that people enjoy working with us and this
enhances the learning process during the training.

Be open minded-

Respect other peoples views during the training.

15
Do not assume that you know everything.

Be willing to listen and learn from fairness.

Be organized

Organized trainers can handle several tasks at once.

They know how to manage time and work.

Use backup materials during the training e.g handouts, newsletters, IE C materials.

Ensure people participation in terms of gender.

At the end of the training ensure that there is positive feedback as well as
suggestions for improvement.

Ensure that there is a follow up training.

Characteristics of a good training manual

a) The content of the manual should be relevant to the theme of training.

b) It should state the target audience.
c) It should indicate the resources required for the training to be successful.
d) It should be designed in a way that the training is undertaken in sessions
and it should show the chronology of events.
e) It should state the quality, skill or expertness of a trainer.
f) It should have simple language easier interpretation.
g) It should show the time frame for the whole manual to be covered.
h) It should indicate how the participants are going to be engaged in a
training.
i) It should indicate how training is going to be evaluated , the tools for
evaluation and how to combine an evaluation report.

16
17