The best soft skills for teachers

Soft skills and Public Speaking are nowadays becoming more and more important in the context of education and daily life. Both within and outside of the classroom, it is crucial to possess abilities like emotional intelligence, empathy, teamwork, conflict management, public speaking, assertive communication and stress management. The participants in our course gained greater knowledge about how to improve their skills through a combination of theoretical and practical activities.
 
The new edition of the combined courses “Soft Skills and Emotional Intelligence for teachers and education staff​” and “Effective Communication and Public Speaking for teachers​ and education staff” took place in Palermo from 30/07/2023 to 05/08/2023.

The participants came from all across Europe, with Irina from Henri Coanda Theoretical High School in Romania, Quentin from Institut de la providence de Champion in Belgium, Agnieszka and Agnieszka from KUL Lublin in Poland, Sofia and Mafalda from Jobra in Portugal and participants coming from different Hungarian schools: Eva from Dunakeszi Radnóti Miklós Gimnázium IV. Béla Király Tagintézménye, Beata from Szegedi Madách Imre Magyar-Angol Két Tanítási Nyelvű Általános Iskola, Erika from BSZC Széchenyi Bilingual Secondary School of Economics, Feny from Szegedi Madách Imre Magyar-Angol Két Tanítási Nyelvű Általános Iskola, Monika from Avicenna International College Magyar-Angol Két Tanítási Nyelvű, Nora from Dunakeszi Szent István Általános Iskola, Patrik and Gergely from Budapesti Fazekas Mihály Gyakorló Általános Iskola és Gimnázium.

After an introduction about which skills are essential for teaching, the first topic discussed in the course was Emotional Intelligence, that is based on 5 pillars: self-awareness, self-control, self motivation, empathy and social skills. Through a series of exercises and games the participants were able to discover each of those five pillars and  to understand how to enhance these skills inside the educational context.

Because they must inspire and motivate their students to accomplish a particular objective, effective teachers are also effective leaders in the classroom. Different styles of leadership exist, but not every one of them is suitable for every circumstance. Because of this, participants were invited to discuss and brainstorm about the key traits of the leaders they admire and to reflect on various leadership styles.

Effective communication is one of the most crucial teaching skill. Participants discovered the differences between on assertive, aggressive, passive-aggressive, and passive communication, exploring through games and role plays the consequences of the use of these different styles.

Another important skills for teachers is public speaking: some of the teachers interested in the topic gained knowledge of presentation techniques, body language management, and nonverbal communication. The participants were encouraged to prepare a brief speech to deliver in front of the class in order to build confidence and put their newly acquired skills to work.

The course's final topic was managing conflicts. Working with others can be challenging at times, and we are not always sure how to resolve disputes. By discussing their personal experiences, they realized how typical these circumstances are and that conflict doesn't always result in a bad thing; it may also present opportunities for growth and development. 

During the week a lot of sharing enriched the knowledge of all the participants, which had the opportunity to learn new games and strategies shared by other teachers. 

To conclude this article, we would like to share a comment from one of our participants Irina:

“Thank you for extraordinary course! A very well structured course with many useful examples and a very competent trainer. I had an amazing experience!. Irina”
​
Discover more about these courses here: “Soft Skills and Emotional Intelligence for teachers and education staff​” and “Effective Communication and Public Speaking for teachers​ and education staff”