Educational communication, engagement and agency as pedagogical phenomena

Nowadays the organization of educational communication among students is an important condition contributing to the development of hard, soft and self-skills necessary for future specialists. The phenomenon of educational communication is considered in the context of collaborative activities between a teacher and students at a higher school. The article presents a comparative analysis of educational and pedagogical communication, which is based on the following criteria: purpose, content, positions of participants, methods of organization, results. Educational communication is defined as a collaborative activity of the teacher and students where the teacher’s role is changed from the leader to the partner and the students become active participants of the learning process. The authors focus on the key characteristics of educational communication – engagement and agency, which enable students to be involved in studying and have an influence on the process itself. The conclusion is made that the engagement of the participants in communication is provided by special metateaching methods universal for any academic subject. The prospect of further research is to consider metateaching means and didactic scenarios necessary for organizing educational communication between the teacher and students in order to achieve subject, meta-subject and personal learning outcomes.

educational communication, collaborative activities, engagement, agency, educational process