Page 174 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

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What is important to be noticed here is that the pupil and the pedagogue
collaboratively construct the support activation event; in this case, the actions
of both the parties are required to complete support activation and set the
stage for support provision.
Fourth, the events identified in this analyses are open structures, or slots
that can be filled appropriately by a variety of content. That is, pedagogues
may pursue each of these broad events by performing several possible
actions. For example, a pupil may seek help by direct verbal acts (asking)
indirect verbal acts (hinting or complaining), direct nonverbal acts (crying or
sulking). Pedagogues can provide support by engaging in problem-focused
approach acts, which suggest solution to problems (solve); emotion-focused
approach acts, which strive to elicit positive emotions (solace); problem-
focused avoidance acts, which minimizes the significance of the problem
(dismiss); or emotion-focused avoidance acts, which distract the pupil or
discourage the expression of negative emotion (escape).
Fifth, the actions that take place in one event influence the interpreta-
tions, experience, and actions occurring in subsequent events. Finally, every
phase of supportive interactions is filled with perils, pitfalls, paradoxes, and
predicaments for both the pedagogue and the pupil. These problems of sup-
portive interactions stem from a variety of sources, including threats, inherent
in seeking and providing support.
It is clear, that every phase of supportive communication and interactions—
seeking, providing, reacting, and responding—represents a challenging task
for the pedagogue and many lack the skills which are necessary to meet the
challenges successfully. Additionally, many features of support situations
increase the difficulty of seeking and providing support even for pedagogues
who are skilled communicators. We now consider some of the individual
and contextual factors that influence communicative activities in support
situations, particularly, the efforts that lead to the effectiveness in providing
support.
Research studies by Barbee and Cunningham (1995); Barbee; Rowatt
and Cunningham (1998); Dunkel—Schetter et al., (1992); Stroebe and
Stroebe (1998); Vause (1988); found that behaviour by both the pedagogue
and the pupil is influenced by numerous variables, including demographic
factors (e.g., sex, age, social class, etc.); personality traits (e.g., attachment
styles, trait empathy, pro social values, gender orientations); cognitive vari-
ables (e.g., cognitive complexity, social perspective taking, attribution pro-
cesses); affective states (e.g., helper mood, pupil mood, specific emotional
states of pedagogue and pupil), relationship factors (e.g., type of relationship
between the pedagogue and the pupil, quality of the relationship, length of
the relationship), international contingencies (e.g., type of support, activation
behaviour, success of support effect), and situational variables (e.g., problem
severity, responsibility for the problem, interaction setting, etc.).

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