Abstract
There has been growing pressure on curriculum planners and lecturers to explore methods that will reduce boredom in the lecturing and learning of content subjects such as communication studies. Lecturers in communication studies often discuss the challenge of completing all the work required by the prescribed curriculum of the Department of Higher Education and Training. They argue that there is no time for group activities and debates in the lessons. This study aims to analyze debate surrounding learning in a Communication Studies classroom in a TVET college in order to understand how interactions contribute to learning and to prove that time invested in classroom conversations is worthwhile. This is against the background of the need for communication studies students to develop communication skills that will help them solve real business issues. The ultimate goal of this learning area is to develop problem solving skills among the students, one of which is the communication skill.
The inquiry used an ethnomethodology approach that contains a conversation analysis of classroom interaction patterns. This investigation was performed on the conversational video recording of Communication Studies N6 students, where Clayman and Gill’s four levels of CA were used. During the conversation participants’ opinions and perspectives were respected as they developed their ideas and judged whether there was anything beneficial to be learned from their fellow participants. The findings include six episodes from the conversation, different types of sequences and the use of gestures. The findings were used to establish if there is a link between conversations for learning (CFL) and educational practice. The study hypothesizes that communication studies lecturers will benefit from the findings and recommendations of this study and implement them in their teaching to promote a learning atmosphere and tasks that require the incorporation of conversations in the classroom.
M.Ed. (Psychology of Learning)