Introduction

     A high-quality teacher preparation program is designed to create and cultivate effective teachers.  It has been found that expert communication skills makes a classroom teacher more effective (McCroskey, Richmond, & Bennett, 2006).  Oftentimes, the curriculum in teacher preparation programs focuses on one’s ability to read and write and the use of technology. However, it does not focus on developing strong and methodological communication skills.  Much research has been done to understand “what it means to be an effective teacher in terms of communication” (Frymier, 2005).  The study of McCroskey, Richmond, and Bennett (2006) outlines the importance of the relationship between motivation and teacher communications and the positive effects those skills have on instructional outcomes.

The Purpose of the Study

     In what ways are teacher training programs preparing new teachers to become effective by training them to use high-quality communication skills?  This study was a first attempt to explore the various communication skills necessary for a teacher to become effective with a group of classroom students within a public school K-12 environment. In this study, the researchers interviewed school administrators, parents, and community members who work with K-12 students, as well as classroom teachers, themselves, to identify and describe the communication skills demonstrated by highly effective teachers.  Once those high-quality skills are clearly identified and described, the researchers plan to develop curriculum that would infuse these skills into a teacher preparation program.
     The purpose of this study is to explore how communication skills make effective teachers. This pilot study attempts to clearly identify and describe the various ways which effective teachers communicate.  The goal of developing high-quality communication skills is to improve instruction and ultimately enhance learning outcomes.   It was the initial intent of this study to determine if developing high-quality communication skills with classroom teachers will serve that ultimate goal. This study will help to gain an understanding, as well as, explore ways to improve teacher preparation programs.  The perceptions of four groups are explored and presented below.  They are (1) school administrators, (2) classroom teachers, (3) parents and (4) community members who work with K-12 teachers. 
Becoming an Effective Teacher: Communication between Teachers and School Administrators
     This section of the study investigates how beginning teachers can become effective teachers by developing good communication skills with administrators. The key questions for the principals and school administrators involve: (a) What do you expect from beginning teachers? (b) In what ways would you develop effective communication skills with a beginning teacher?  (c) What are your perceptions of new teacher communication skills? (d) In what ways would you help beginning teacher get started?  Key questions for beginning teachers are: a) What do you expect from an administrator/principal? (b) In what ways would you communicate effectively to an administrator?  (c) In what ways would you develop effective communication skills with school administrator/ principal?
Theoretical Basis of the Study
    The beginning teachers of the 21st century have many fears and suspicions entering into the teaching profession because, “With immigration and people moving from one part of the country to another, the composition of the schools are different than they were in the past with regards to race, ethnicity, and social economic status;” hence, research finds that, “these changes have brought fears and anxiety to beginning teachers. New teachers worry that they may not be adequately prepared to meet the needs of students from diverse backgrounds. Other problems creating fears such as school violence and discipline have been exacerbated by the media, while fears such as talking to parents, doing lesson plans, or an assignment to an undesired level, campus, or mentor can be traumatic” (Wilson, Ireton, & Wood, 1997).
     Certainly researchers admit that beginning teachers need help lifelines in the classroom (Stansbury & Zimmerman, 2000). Mentoring beginning teachers is a necessity as indicated by Thomson, Warnick, and Cole (2002); which calls upon principals and school administrators to provide ongoing support to beginning teachers in order to ensure effectiveness and retention (Inman & Marlow, 2004; Brewster & Railsback, 2001). Moreover, a principal’s wise leadership and a healthy “school climate are critical in retaining teachers” according to a Duke University Study (Wynn, 2006). Certainly high-quality and ongoing support improves the likelihood that new teachers will stay the course. However, it is necessary to establish that the support for the beginning teachers should embrace personal and emotional support, effective communication, and problem-solving support. The support should involve critical self-reflection which can directly lead to improved learning in a new teacher’s classroom. The school principals, who are the CEO of any given school, must be creative and positive in reminding the beginning teachers of their strengths; because people learn better when we place emphasis on their strengths rather than their weaknesses. Appreciating what these beginning teachers do would be viewed as the hallmark of an effective communication in the school environment (Brewster & Railsback, 2001).
     In the effort of supporting beginning teachers, the North Carolina State Board of Education Policy Manual (2006) suggests that beginning teachers need a three year induction period, teachers should be assigned in the area of their licensure, teachers need to develop individual growth plans, teachers should work in optimum working conditions, provide orientation, assign mentors to new teachers, provide training and support for mentor teachers, observe and evaluate beginning teaches three times annually. It is upon this premise of the need for beginning teachers to become effective teachers, we have chosen to investigate using qualitative interviews to determine the skills that are required in effective communication among the beginning teachers, school administrators, classroom teachers, and the community. It is our philosophy that if effective communication is established and if all are equivocally involved, beginning teachers will become effective teachers, and the students will become the primary beneficiaries of the collective support.
The Findings from Qualitative Study
     The following are the findings of the qualitative study which was conducted through interviewing school principals and beginning teachers. The answers to the questions were recorded and were presented in this study exactly as they were spoken by the participants.
     The principals. (a)  What do you expect from beginning teachers? A beginning teacher, who has learned theory, cannot be perfect, especially at classroom management. This new teacher must be able to relate to students, be able to present the subject matter in an understandable way so that students may understand. A beginning teacher should be a team player in relating with other teachers, consulting, and collaborating with other teachers. The beginning teacher should be able to know if there is problem he/she needs to handle it through the chain of command. For example, if a teacher was to have a problem with a parent, the teacher needs to inform and involve the administration. The beginning teacher should understand and adhere to the teaching ethics. For example situations arising in a classroom, first and foremost, the teacher should make sure that students are safe, and use the channel of command in controlling the problem. The beginning teacher should have be able to control temper, teach according to syllabus, and be careful not to include personal beliefs, be able to apply cultural skills and techniques, and be sensitive to diversity in and outside the classroom.
     (b) In what ways would you develop effective communication skills with a beginning teacher?  One of the ways is providing a mentor, who will guide the teacher in the lesson planning, teaching aids, show communication skills of teaching and dealing with students. The administrator must be open and available for consultation and guidance with the beginning teacher. The administrator should be there, contact faculty meetings on teaching and learning weekly, publish a newsletter on school activities and expectations once a month, and communicate to faculty electronically (e.g. email). The administrator should provide the district guidelines. The district guidelines consist of the way things are done in that particular district because they differ from district to district. So, the administrator should make district guideline available to the beginning teacher. During the first day, the beginning teacher should be giving orientation on the school environment, be introduced to faculty, staff, and students, for this will give the beginning teacher a sense of acceptance, belonging, and confidence. Since one does not know what to expect, he or she cannot know how to behave and work with colleagues. By doing so, the administer opens the door of communication, and this shows the beginning teacher that the school leadership is approachable, available, and willing to provide any needed support.
     (c)  What are your perceptions of new teacher communication skills? Even though the beginning teacher may be well trained, the new environment may not be inviting. Anyone trained in a good teaching program has proper communication skills, however, the skills are going to be hindered or enhanced based on the school culture. In cases where the school environment is friendly, and inviting, the communication skills may be far much developed.
     (d) In what ways would you help beginning teacher get started? The school administrator/principal must be willing to help, support, guide the new teacher in finding a good teaching environment, and hence increase retention. A good administrator will be able to provide support and guidance to a beginning teacher. The administrator should be able to send the beginning teacher to workshops, refresher courses, BTSA Program, etc.
     The beginning teachers. (a)  What do you expect from an administrator/principal? A beginning teacher expects clear communication, support, and guidance from the administrator. Expect the administrator to be available for consultation. The beginning teachers expect the colleagues to understand that the beginning teacher is not perfect, but one who is in the process of learning the new school culture. They expect the colleagues to share important helpful materials, for example teaching aids such as charts, books, maps, and literature. The administrators should communicate to the colleagues to be willing to be used as resources to the beginning teacher by providing guidance and support to the new beginning teacher.
     (b)  In what ways would you communicate effectively to an administrator? I would be open, share experiences, disappointments, seek advice on issues, and be punctual in coming and leaving school, express any concerns, and in staff meetings share expectations, show appreciation to those who provide guidance and support, be willing to volunteer for assignments, and take challenging positions such as welcoming visitors in the school, games, and other school functions.
     (c) In what ways would you develop effective communication skills with school administrator/ principal? The only way is to handle matters as they come. Follow the correct channel to resolve challenging situations immediately. Be able to respond promptly to school memos, requests such as providing student data, learning activities, and field experience trips. Be able to finish the required assignment from the principal timely. Be an example, and work towards efficiency and effectiveness. The way a beginning teacher can learn effective communication is learning from the mistakes. Don’t be afraid to ask question about unsure issues, for support, and guidance.

Becoming and Effective Teacher:  Communication between Teachers and Parents

     The purpose of this portion of the study is to investigate skills new teachers need in communicating with parents to become effective teachers. The key areas of examination in this study center on what kind of communication skills do beginning teachers need in order to be successful in their teaching.  A primary challenge for new teachers is that they are often at a loss on how to deal with parents. In many cases the new teachers are overwhelmed by the diversity among the parents, and the idea that some are willing to cooperate while others are reluctant. Often the reluctant parents are those that the new teacher really needs to connect with. 

Theoretical Basis of the Study
     Children are an extension of their families (Warner & Bryan, 1995). To know children well, the teacher must know their families as well. The parents and the teachers need to be working together if the set goals are to be achieved. The teacher cannot work alone towards achieving the goals. The teacher needs the parental support. Successful teachers have mastered the skill of communicating with parents because they believe “each world - home and school- is hugely important to a full and successful childhood” (Schmidt, 2004, p.235). Racial, cultural, socioeconomic, and language barriers can inhibit the communication between a new teacher and the parents (Shalaway 2005, p.273). When this happens, a new teacher will have to work extra hard to build the bridges between them and the parents in order to be successful. In this study, new teachers have been defined as teachers in their first year of full time teaching. Among the issues new teachers have to deal with is how to make the parents involved in their children’s education. The first step to fostering parental involvement is learning more about the students’ cultures and backgrounds in order to know the differences and similarities (Shalaway, 2005).  This can be done if teachers have a clear method of communications with parents on all levels.
     While America is increasingly becoming a multicultural society, the teaching force is still dominated by the dominant culture. It has been projected that by 2025, more than a half of the students in American schools will be students of color (Shalaway, 2005).  Teachers in America, new teachers included, must learn to understand people who are different from them. The teacher education curriculum now requires teachers to be familiar with other cultures represented in America, it seems like more could be done to prepare teachers for multicultural education.
     Most of their minority counterparts were not ready for the tasks of parental involvement in the schools. To be successful, the new teachers must get minority parents involved. The new teachers can help the parents become involved in their child’s education by involving the parents in school programs such as volunteer social activity programs and decision-making. For example, the teacher can have parents volunteer as teachers’ aides and members of the classroom development committees. Increased parental involvement will result into student success, teacher satisfaction, and improved classroom and school climate.  The new teachers need not to be threatened by parents who are over anxious about their children’s progress because the average parents want to make sure that their child was getting the right education, and that the teacher was effective enough to provide that kind of education. They also want to believe that their child’s teacher was caring enough about their child. Parents want to make sure that their child was getting an education that was quality education and not substandard education.
The Findings from Qualitative Study
     The following are the findings of the qualitative study which was conducted through interviewing parents and beginning teachers. The answers to the questions were recorded and were presented in this study exactly as they were spoken by the participants.
     The parents. What is your view of teacher - parental relationships?  Several of the parents reported that they were reluctant to meet their child’s new teacher because they did not feel fluent in English.  Also, parents felt unqualified to meet with their teachers because they did not attend school themselves or had a different kind of education and were therefore not familiar with American education.  Several parents interviewed viewed the teacher as the expert in their child’s education and were reluctant to meddle.  Parents wanted to be sure that the new teacher was effective and caring. Parents read stories about ineffective teachers in the newspaper and the media and were uncomfortable with new teachers and associated new teachers with school failure.
     The beginning teachers. What is your view of teacher - parental relationships?  Several of the teachers who responded to the interviews had encountered over anxious parents who wanted to be classroom volunteers but spent most of the time helping their own child with their assignments or observing how their child was competing with other children in the class. Others were in the class to keep an eye on the new teacher, comparing her/him with the previous teachers. Over anxious parents asked questions like are you sure you will cover the syllabus this year? I heard that the other class is already a head of this class, how will you catch up? When are you going to teach them something new?  Some of the teachers interviewed in this research had encountered confrontational parents. In several cases the teachers identified such clashes as cultural. Oftentimes, these teachers were dealing with parents who were immigrants.  Failure to understand cross cultural communications can make parent teacher communications difficult.  New teachers need to invest in knowing the cultural practices of the families represented in their class to reduce cross cultural conflicts between the teacher and the parents. Some of the teachers said that they were scared whenever the parents asked for a meeting because they did not know what to expect. Overall, new teachers need to strive to build trust with the parents to ensure success. This is the responsibility of the new teachers foremost.

Becoming an Effective Teacher: Communication with Teachers and Community Members

     This section of the paper investigates how beginning teachers develop effective communication skills with the community programs and partnerships with whom they work.  The key questions for community members are: (a) When you work with classroom teachers, have you noted that some are more effective than others?  If yes, could you identify and describe what kinds of communication skills are used by highly-effective teachers?  (b) Are there any ways you intervene with the teacher when he/she is working with his/her students?  Key questions asked of the beginning teachers are:  (a) as classroom teachers, have you found certain means of communicating with your students more effective than others?  If yes, could you identify and describe what kinds of communication skills you used? (b)  How and where do you learn to use these communication skills? 
Theoretical Basis of the Study
     Many of the children in today’s classrooms come from untraditional families and may be distanced geographically from the traditional family unit.  It is critical because of this new family dynamic that students have opportunities to connect with community members who can serve as mentors and role models (Moore, 2003).  It is important that beginning teachers have the skills to communicate with these community members more so than ever.  By building community partnerships, teachers can bring incredible resources and rich ideas to student learning in the classrooms (Moore, 2003).  “All members of a child's educational environment must work collectively to ensure that the child reaches his or her potential. The child, the community, and the curriculum are all interdependent factors that can either negatively or positively affect one another” (Moore, 2003).   According to Sainvilus (2008), when the community breaks down, it soon “mirrors itself in a child, who in turn brings those negative nuances into the classroom.” That is when the child is disconnected from the community and the curriculum, eventually it will lead to student aggression and bad choices (Sainvilus, 2008).  The role model and mentoring that is provided by community members and leaders can have a positive effective on classroom students’ learning.  It is clear also that their emotional stability and feelings of belongingness can be influenced in many positive ways. 
The Findings from Qualitative Study
     The following are the findings of the qualitative study which was conducted through interviewing community members and beginning teachers. The answers to the questions were recorded and were presented in this study exactly as they were spoken by the participants.
     The community members. (a) When you work with classroom teachers, have you noted that some are more effective than others?  If yes, could you identify and describe what kinds of communication skills are used by highly-effective teachers?  Some of the community members who have Masters Degrees in education, who also led field trips for students said that effective teachers frequently engage in the learning activity along with the students and allow the community members to handle the simple behavior and discipline issues of the students.  When teachers and the community work together, it demonstrates care, appreciation of the teaching and the learning processes, and this is what team work in educating our students in schools is all about. (b) Are there any ways you intervene with the teacher when he/she is working with his/her students?  All of the community members stated that they never interfered unless a safety issue arose. 
     The beginning teachers. (a)  As classroom teachers, have you found certain means of communicating with your students more effective than others?  If yes, could you identify and describe what kinds of communication skills you used?  The majority number of the teachers showed that non-verbal communications skills were high effective means of communicating with their students.  It allowed them to continue their instruction without interruption. (b)  How and where do you learn how to use these communication skills?  All the teachers indicated that Non-verbal communication skills were taught to them by colleagues after they began their teaching assignments, not in their teacher education programs. Additionally, some of community members who worked with teachers on a weekly basis, providing field trips for classroom students, stated that they found that highly effective teachers frequently had more than one or two, but a variety of non-verbal cues.

The Conclusions and the Recommendations of the Study

     In conclusion, this study examined how beginning teachers become effective teachers. The study found that for the beginning teachers to be effective educators in the classroom, there must be a clear communication between school administers/principals and the teacher, teachers and the parents, and teachers and the larger community surrounding schools. Both literature and the qualitative data demonstrated that there is need to help beginning teachers to develop communication skills to be effective educators. With the coming of new immigrant students in the classroom, teachers need communication skills assistance in dealing with students who are not proficient in English language. When school administrators, parents, and the community work together in support of the beginning teacher the study shows that beginning teachers’ fears and anxiety will be minimized. The teachers expressed that they need school administrators and colleagues to support them by providing learning materials, and mentorship. Principals should go further by providing open communication opportunities, and training of the beginning teachers about the school culture.
     This study recommends that school administrators/principals should not take the new teachers for granted. Certainly the administrators admit that the beginning teachers are not perfect; however, there must be enormous efforts of ushering the new teacher in the school system rather than finding the easiest solution of giving a pink slip at the end of a school term.  The parents and the community members need to be more involved in the learning processes of their children. They need to support the new teacher by assisting in the work load of marking papers, discipline, and moral support. The support to the teachers should not be limited to the school classroom, but at home. The parents and the community must make sure that students are doing their homework and that they have good rapport with the beginning teachers. The beginning teachers should make sure that they develop viable communication skills with the school administer, parents, and the community. They also must be teachable, and must be able to learn the new knowledge about the school culture as soon as possible. For this new knowledge will assist them in the process of understanding how the school functions. The colleges and the universities should join in supporting beginning teachers by strengthening the subject matter competency, lesson planning, designing instruction, assessing instruction, and how to effectively communicate and teach diverse student populations. Both verbal and non-verbal communication skills were indicated as vital in being an effective teacher; hence, there must be concerted effort of helping beginning teachers to know how to communicate verbally and non-verbally.

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