Start at your audience's level. Take into account the age, education, experience and ability level of your participants. High-school students and high-school teachers can both benefit from learning conflict resolution skills. However, your starting point, the examples you use and the complexity level will differ for these two groups.
Teach to the task. Do your participants communicate on the phone, in person or via the Web? Do they work with children or adults, in calm environments or hostile situations? Put simply, know what your participants do and how they do it. Focus your teaching around those things
Establish rapport with the participants at the outset. One way to do this is to begin with some ice-breaking activities. Fun, nonthreatening activities enable participants to relax and get to know each other, which facilitates group discussion. You can find many such activities at Group-Games.com.
Strive to get the participants to interact with you and with each other. Show them, don't tell them. Whether your topic is listening skills or group dynamics, public speaking or nonverbal communication, activities that illustrate these concepts are more effective and memorable than lectures and worksheets. Role playing, group projects and collaborative learning should be your preferred methods of instruction.
Use real-world examples and scenarios. Bring the outside world into the classroom. Video clips from TV shows or movies, newspaper headlines or lyrics to popular songs can all be used to illustrate concepts. For example, in a college communication class, ask students to bring songs and song lyrics that correlate with topics discussed in class (such as conflict or verbal communication). You can use video clips in a similar way. YouTube and Hulu.com are two sources of video clips that revolve around popular culture, and there are many similar sites. Solicit examples from the people you're teaching.
Communication (good and bad) happens everywhere and all the time. Don't limit yourself to traditional teaching materials. Teaching communication skills is challenging and rewarding. It requires planning, creativity and flexibility.