Peel High School

Partially selective and feature school for agriculture

Telephone02 6765 7088

Emailpeel-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Communication and cooperation

Cooperation involves give and take. Learning to co-operate is the ability of a person to reflect on, and balance their own needs and wants whilst remaining considerate of another person's needs and wants. It is the ability to work effectively with others especially when a conflict must be resolved, and to respectfully express feelings and needs to others through good communication skills.

Communication occurs in many forms and can include talking with or confiding in someone to get "stuff off your chest", reconciling an argument, making friends or new connections, and making yourself understood to others. Therefore, communication skills are vital in helping people to speak, listen or express concerns to others.

Communicating well has a large effect on your ability to avoid conflict and arguments and generally get communicationalong well with others. Often, achieving what you want or organising something you need depends on good communication. Open and honest communications are them most appreciated when talking to friends and maintaining healthy relationships.

Generally 3 possible styles of communication will occur between people:

The first is assertive communication. This form of communication involves clearly expressing your opinion, how you feel and anything you may want, and doing this in a way that is not seen as a demand but rather straight forward, honest communication. This communication style is based on the understanding that both people matter and the issue can be worked out to suit everyone.

The second is aggressive communication. People who communicate in an aggressive way will generally display force and hostility towards others, and this may mean that they "blame" others for failings, or "accuse" other people as the cause of a bad outcome. During this style of communication a person's tone of voice and facial or body expressions appear unfriendly.

The third and final communication style is passive communication. Passive communication involves not asking for what you want, or expressing your own emotions or thoughts but rather putting what you want last. Often people who use this style of communication feel resentful or as if people are "walking all over them" and this is because their needs are not being heard or looked at. If you use passive communication you may often find yourself thinking "My needs don't matter".

To read further on communication and co-operation view the reach-out website online at:

www.reachout.com/Wellbeing/Social-skills/Communication-skills

hmri

 

NSW Health

 

nib foundation

 

University of Newcastle