The Effective Communication Skills of Preservice Teachers: Challenges, Changes, and Future İmplications

This pre-experimental mixed design study comprised pre and post-self-report measures as well as the conduct of in-depth interviews with preservice teachers sought to ascertain the effect of an elective drama course on effective communication skills, identify challenges to effective communication faced by preservice teachers, and learn how student teachers perceived the course's impact about previous challenges and potential career implications. Pre-interviews and post-interviews, pre-test and post-test applications were carried out with preservice teachers majoring in early childhood education in their senior year. The findings revealed that the preservice teachers' effective communication skills improved significantly in the areas of ego-enhancing language, active/participative listening, and I message as a result of taking the drama course. The drama activities primarily assisted the participants in overcoming the emotional and interactional challenges that limited their ability to communicate effectively and provided guidance for the instructional process as well as for building relationships with parents, administrators, colleagues, and students.