Communication Skills for Recreation and Health Promotion Professionals

Curriculum Guideline

Effective Date:
Course
Discontinued
No
Course Code
THRT 1205
Descriptive
Communication Skills for Recreation and Health Promotion Professionals
Department
Therapeutic Recreation
Faculty
Applied Community Studies
Credits
3.00
Start Date
End Term
202130
PLAR
Yes
Semester Length
Flexible delivery ranging over 2 to 15 weeks
Max Class Size
30
Contact Hours
60 Hours
Method(s) Of Instruction
Lecture
Tutorial
Learning Activities
  • Lecture and larger group discussion
  • Small group discussion and activity
  • Media
  • Practice communication sessions
  • Video and audio recordings of sessions
Course Description
This course focuses on the principles and practices of effective communication. Students will become aware of their communication with themselves and others and learn to effectively use and interpret verbal and nonverbal messages. The impact of culture and gender on communication will be explored. Basic helping skills; attending, paraphrasing, questioning, empathy and summarizing, are introduced and applied when conducting leisure interview.
Course Content

Foundations of Human Communication

  • Human communication defined
  • Importance of communication
  • Elements of communication: source, message, channel, interference and feedback
  • Communication process: simultaneous interactive nature
  • Characteristics of communication: inescapable, irreversible, complicated and rule governed
  • Effective communication requires: self-awareness, effective use and interpretation of both verbal and nonverbal messages, listening and responding skills and the ability to effectively adapt messages to others

Perception, Self-Awareness and Communication

  • Perception process: attention, selection, organization and interpretation
  • Importance of self-awareness in improving communication skills
  • Self concept, self esteem and communication
  • Gender, social comparisons, self expectations and communication

Verbal Communication

  • Canada’s linguistic diversity
  • Denotative, connotative, abstract and concrete meanings
  • Culture-bound and context-bound words
  • Words, power and biased language

Nonverbal Communication

  • Importance and functions of nonverbal communication
  • Culture-bound, rule-governed, multi-channelled and continuous nature of nonverbal communication
  • Interpreting nonverbal cues more accurately

Interpersonal Communication Skills and Enhancing Relationships

  • Attributes of interpersonal communication
  • Self-disclosure: models, effectiveness, role in relationships
  • Communication: family and work-based relationships
  • Managing interpersonal conflict

Culture, Gender and Communication

  • Cultural contexts and values
  • Gender and communication
  • Overcoming barriers and adapting to others

Helping Skills

  • Components of effective listening
  • Demonstrate active listening skills
  • Demonstrate interviewing skills

Leisure Interview

  • Applies attending, paraphrasing, questions, silence, empathy, self-disclosure summary skills
  • Develops leisure interview questions
  • Demonstrates and evaluates the leisure interview
Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

  • describe the importance and foundations of human communication
  • recognize the impact of perception and self-awareness on communication
  • explain the effective use and interpretation of verbal messages
  • explain the effective use and interpretation of nonverbal messages
  • apply interpersonal communication skills to the enhancement of relationships
  • describe the influence of culture and gender on communication
  • demonstrate active listening skills
  • conduct leisure interview
Means of Assessment

This course will conform to Douglas College policy regarding the number and weighting of evaluations. Typical means of evaluation would include a combination of:

  • Written assignments
  • Presentations
  • Testing

This is a graded course

Textbook Materials

TBA

Prerequisites

Courses listed here must be completed prior to this course:

  • No prerequisite courses
Corequisites

Courses listed here must be completed either prior to or simultaneously with this course:

  • No corequisite courses
Equivalencies

Courses listed here are equivalent to this course and cannot be taken for further credit:

  • No equivalency courses
Which Prerequisite