Teaching Students to Share Thoughts, Ideas, and Solutions in Compelling and Influential Ways
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
Written by Helen Kenworthy, Artistic Director
Helen champions the arts as a tool for change. Now, as CEO of RYTC Creatives CIC and Give Get Go Education, she mentors young people, creates pathways for them to thrive in the arts, and helps launch successful careers.
Every young person has ideas worth hearing. What often stands between a good idea and real influence is not the idea itself, but whether the person holding it has been taught how to share it in a way that lands. For many learners, particularly those who have not thrived in traditional education, communication is treated as something they either have or don't, rather than a skill they can build.
Helen Kenworthy's work through Creative Pathway Methodology: Of Course You Can! serving the brilliantly underestimated, treats communication as central to learning, not separate from it. Teaching a young person to express an idea clearly, tell a compelling story, or argue a solution persuasively is not an add-on to academic content, creative practice, or career preparation. It is the thread that runs through all three.
A student can know the right answer and still be unheard, simply because they have never been taught how to shape that answer for the person listening. Knowledge without the ability to communicate it rarely gets the recognition or the results it deserves.
A young person who has learned to communicate well carries that skill into every part of their life, long after they've forgotten a particular subject or qualification. It shapes how they are perceived in a classroom, how they come across in an interview, and how confidently they can advocate for themselves when it matters most.
Why communication is often left to chance
Most education systems assume communication will develop naturally alongside subject knowledge. Students are expected to write essays, answer questions, and eventually present their work, but rarely receive direct, structured teaching on how to influence a listener or reader.
For young people who have experienced instability elsewhere, or who have simply never been asked to explain their thinking out loud, this gap becomes significant. Confidence in communication is assumed rather than built, and the students who most need explicit coaching are often the ones least likely to receive it.
Left unaddressed, this gap tends to widen rather than close over time. A student who struggles to communicate in early education often finds fewer opportunities to practise as the stakes rise, because teachers and mentors naturally gravitate towards the students who already communicate confidently, leaving quieter students with even less room to develop.
What teaching communication as a skill really means
Teaching effective communication is not about turning every student into a natural public speaker. It means giving students a practical, repeatable process for shaping their thoughts, ideas, and solutions so another person can understand, engage with, and be moved by them.
In practice, this can look like helping a student consider their audience before they start, showing them how to turn a fact into a story, or coaching them to give and receive feedback on how a message landed rather than only whether it was correct. The educator's role shifts from marking content to shaping delivery.
This distinction matters because it changes what is actually being assessed and encouraged. A student is no longer judged only on whether their answer was right, but on whether they could make that answer land with the person receiving it, which is a far closer match to how ideas succeed or fail outside the classroom.
Communication as a bridge between subjects and the real world
Academic subjects, creative projects and career preparation can each feel like separate worlds to a young person, each with its own rules and its own version of success. Communication is one of the few skills that moves fluidly across all three, because explaining a maths solution, pitching a creative idea and presenting in a job interview all draw on the same underlying ability to organise a thought and deliver it with purpose.
When communication is taught explicitly and consistently, students begin to notice this overlap. A technique learned while preparing a presentation for Give Get Go Education (GGGE) employability sessions can just as easily strengthen how a student explains their reasoning in an Education Selection Box (ESB) tutoring session, or how they pitch a creative concept through The RYTC. The skill transfers because it was never really about the subject in the first place.
Signs a student needs more support finding their voice
Some young people make it clear, often through silence rather than words, that they have not yet been given the tools to communicate with confidence. Educators and practitioners may notice patterns such as:
Reluctance to speak up even when they clearly understand the material
Written work that is stronger than anything they will say out loud
Overreliance on one word or minimal answers to avoid elaborating
Discomfort with open-ended questions that have no single correct response
Sudden confidence when talking about a topic they genuinely care about
Anxiety around presenting that outweighs their actual grasp of the content
A habit of asking someone else to speak on their behalf
These patterns rarely reflect a lack of ideas. More often, they reflect a young person who has never been taught, step by step, how to shape and deliver what they already know.
Key qualities of an effective communication coach
Educators who successfully build this skill in students tend to share a consistent set of qualities:
Genuine curiosity: asking a student what they meant before correcting how they said it
Patience with imperfect delivery: allowing early attempts to be rough without discouraging the next one
Willingness to model: demonstrating a message before asking a student to attempt their own
Specific feedback: pointing to exact moments that worked rather than offering general praise
Consistency: creating regular, low-pressure opportunities to practise, not only occasional big moments
Respect for different styles: recognising that influence can be quiet as well as loud
Together, these qualities create an environment where communication is treated as a skill worth practising, not a talent some students simply have and others do not.
Why this matters for the brilliantly underestimated
Many young people who struggle to communicate confidently have been talked over, spoken about or simply not asked for their view often enough. Without deliberate coaching, that pattern tends to continue well beyond the classroom, into interviews, workplaces and everyday advocacy for themselves.
Across Helen's wider work, whether through Education Selection Box, The RYTC or Give Get Go Education, teaching communication is treated as central rather than incidental. The aim is not simply for students to complete a task well. It is for them to be able to explain, persuade, and be heard, in the classroom and in every room they walk into afterward.
What about students who resist speaking up?
Not every student will welcome the chance to present, pitch or speak out loud. Some have learned that silence is safer than being wrong in front of others, so they default to short answers or let someone else lead.
This is not evidence that a student cannot communicate well. It shows that confidence needs to build gradually, through small, genuinely safe opportunities before larger ones. As trust grows, so does willingness to take the risk of being heard.
Communication skills that outlast the classroom
The real test of any communication skill is whether it still holds up once the classroom, the mentor and the structured session are gone. A student who has only ever communicated within a tightly controlled environment can struggle the moment they face an unscripted conversation, an unexpected question or an audience they cannot predict.
This is why the coaching we describe is never treated as a box to tick once. It is revisited across projects, across brands and across years, so that by the time a young person leaves our programmes, communicating clearly and persuasively feels like something they simply do, not something they have to consciously perform.
11 ways to teach students the power of effective communication
Genuine communication skills build through repeated, deliberate practice rather than a single lesson on public speaking. The eleven approaches below show how we help students learn to share their thoughts, ideas, and solutions in ways that are both compelling and influential.
Start with the audience, not the content: Before a student writes a single word or says a single sentence, we ask them who they are actually talking to. Understanding an audience's needs and expectations changes everything about how an idea should be shaped and delivered.
Turn facts into stories: Information is easy to forget, but a story is easy to remember. We coach students to wrap their facts, arguments, and solutions inside a narrative that gives the listener a reason to care.
Encourage curiosity through questions: The best communicators are often the best questioners first. We build sessions around genuine inquiry, so students learn to ask what matters before they try to explain what they know.
Practice active listening as much as speaking: Communication is a two-way skill, and listening well is what makes a response worth hearing. Students who learn to properly absorb what others are saying become far more persuasive when it is their turn to speak.
Use real-world scenarios: Abstract communication exercises rarely stick. We root practice in situations students will actually face, whether that is presenting a project, pitching an idea, or explaining their thinking to a mentor.
Build confidence through low-stakes practice: Nobody communicates well under pressure if they have never had the chance to try without it. We create plenty of low-stakes opportunities to speak, share, and be heard before the moments that really count.
Teach clarity over complexity: A clever idea poorly explained will always lose to a simple idea explained well. We push students to strip their message down to what genuinely matters and say it plainly.
Model persuasive structure: Influence rarely happens by accident. We show students a simple structure: what they believe, why it matters, and what should happen next, and let them build their own message around it.
Give feedback that builds rather than critiques: Confidence in communication grows from encouragement, not correction alone. Our feedback always points to what worked before it points to what could be stronger, so students keep taking the risk of speaking up.
Celebrate different communication styles: Not every strong communicator is loud or naturally outgoing. We make space for quieter, more considered voices to be just as valued as the confident, spontaneous ones.
Connect communication to purpose: Skills stick when students understand why they matter beyond the classroom. We continually link communication practice back to real outcomes: a stronger portfolio, a successful pitch, a job interview that goes well.
Conclusion
Teaching students to communicate effectively is not a soft skill sitting alongside the real learning. It is one of the most practical, transferable capabilities a young person can develop, shaping how well their ideas, solutions and effort are ultimately recognised.
Helen Kenworthy's work through Of Course You Can! treats communication coaching as essential, especially for students who have too often gone unheard. Helping a young person find and use their voice is not a small addition to their education. It is one of the clearest ways to change what's possible next.
To explore more about teaching students the power of effective communication, visit here.
Creative Pathway Methodology: Of Course You Can!™ serving the brilliantly underestimated.
Helen Kenworthy, Artistic Director
Helen Kenworthy’s career embodies the transformative power of the arts, from her early roles in the prestigious West End with Bill Kenwright to her impactful work in regional theatre. As manager of the Oxfordshire Youth Arts Partnership, she created pathways for young people to thrive in the arts, with many going on to successful careers. Now at RYTC Creatives CIC and Give Get Go Education, Helen continues to inspire and mentor the next generation of theatre-makers and community leaders, offering invaluable opportunities for growth and professional development.
