Positive Communication Pedagogy
In order to make a difference, positive communication needs to be taught and practiced. Students and practitioners need to reflect, practice, and experience the value of positive communication. We share on this page exercises and activities that can be easily implemented into your course. Feel free to adapt and play with them to meet with your goals.
7 Positive Communication Exercises
Each of these exercises were developed to promote positive communication practices in the classroom. Click on the title of the exercise to read a full version.
The one-minute gratitude experiment is designed to illustrate the power of disclosure in human communication. When people disclose, they have the ability to deepen their relationships.
This activity introduces students to the psychological barriers and benefits of disclosure. The objective is to get students to lead more authentic and deeper connections with their peers.
This activity introduces students to the power of forgiveness and shows the connection between positive communication and forgiveness.
Through this activity, students will learn to enhance positive emotions through recall and imagination, and increase skills at recognizing and enhancing communication moments to savor.
With this activity, students will reflect on the positive and negative effects of humor and see how meaning is shaped by interaction and context.
When we use humor, we can deepen our relationships, and ease pain (ours and others), as well as help with healing and wellness.
This activity introduces students to the psychological barriers and benefits of disclosure. The objective is to get students more comfortable with disclosure and how it can lead to more authentic, deeper connections with their peers.