Technical experts, administrators, teachers and learners all have different positions in the educational hierarchy, just as experts, managers, workers and customers are differently positioned in other workplaces. Life in these positions produces well learned expectations and behavioural and emotional responses to others. Such learnings interfere with clear communication and effective teamwork. As one view has it, communication is not a matter of stuffing messages through a tube from the sender to the receiver but one of social coupling between the two. Social coupling, on the other hand, means interaction, reciprocation.
Communication is achieved when mutual changes occur in the persons involved.
Writing or speaking may or may not be followed by reading or listening, let alone by the establishment of concepts and models intended by the writer or speaker. True communication as the creation of shared models and concepts is accomplished by people coupled in a communicative relationship. Creating new models and concepts, then, requires time and a supportive environment. Time and environmental support become especially important when the participants are from different cultures, disciplines, job categories, hierarchical levels or types of expertise. When a new curriculum or pedagogy is under construction, even if participatory design is the intent and all relevant groups are well represented, there may be a shortage of time and support.