Teachers’ Strategies in Developing and Measuring Students’ Communication Skills

Abstract

Abstract A good communication skill is one of the capabilities that must be mastered by students to be able to socialize, adapt, and compete with others in the scope of school and social life in the 21st century. The purpose of this type of descriptive qualitative research was about to describe the teachers' strategies in developing and conducting an assessment related to the communication skills of elementary school students in Indonesia. Data were obtained through interviews with 10 elementary school teachers in Yogyakarta Province. Data analysis was performed through applying data analysis steps proposed by Bogdan and Biglen. The results showed that an effective strategy that teachers could use to develop students' communication skills was through discussion and presentation methods. Meanwhile, the assessment of students' communication skills is integrated to cognitive, affective, and psychomotor assessments both in terms of instruments and time of assessment. This was resulted from various limitations originating of the teacher and the availability and completeness of school facilities and infrastructure that supports the implementation of various kinds of assessment.

Keywords

• assessment
• communication skills
• elementary school students.