The importance of improving soft skills for a better communication in the educational environment

Nowadays, in the professional context but also the daily life, Soft skills have become increasingly important
Skills such as emotional intelligence and empathy, teamwork, conflict and stress management are crucial inside and outside the classroom. Through a variety of theoretical and practical activities, our participants acquired more tools and methods to improve their communication skills.

The new edition of the course “Soft Skills and Emotional Intelligence for teachers and education staff​” took place in Palermo from 21/01/2024 to 27/01/2024. The participants came from different parts of Europe, with Jacqueline from Keizer Karel College in Nederland; Chantel, Laurina and Maria Regina from Agrupamento de Escolas de Canelas in Portugal and Cristina Elena, Daniela and Maria Cristina from Dacia Technological Highschool in Romania.

After sharing definitions, key components and personal experiences with soft skills, we discussed the first topic about this course: Emotional Intelligence. This term indicates the ability to identify our and also other people's emotions, being conscious of ourselves and our surroundings. Another skill analyzed during this part was empathy. The participants had the opportunity to learn more about empathy, self-control, self-motivation and building a connection through a series of practical activities.

We continued the course discussing and examining the importance of Leadership. Indeed, a good teacher is also a good leader in the classroom, since they have to motivate and guide their students to reach a specific goal. This important skill comes in different forms, but not all of them are useful in every situation. For this reason, we asked participants to think about the main characteristics of the leaders they esteem and reflect on the different leadership styles.

Another important skill for working in a team is certainly effective communication. Indeed, the participants focused their attention on various communication styles, which are aggressive, passive, passive-aggressive and assertive. Communication is essential when it comes to teamwork and being able to show assertiveness can be tricky because of the possible fear of appearing impolite, but analysing and discussing this issue the participants saw that being assertive means to communicate what you want actually.

To examine and further develop their communication skills the participant also had to prepare an exercise on public speaking. They learned different strategies on how to present themselves, also giving importance to the control of their body language and nonverbal communication. To achieve confidence the participants prepared a short speech to perform in front of the class, practising the skills they had learned.

We concluded this course by talking about a crucial topic: Conflict and stress management. Working with people can be challenging sometimes and we do not always know how to resolve some conflicts. For this reason, the participants shared their own experiences, realising how these are common situations and that conflict doesn’t necessarily have to convey a negative result, it can be a chance for growth and development.

Through this course, participants could confront themselves with each other, sharing their different experiences and backgrounds. It was an emotional week in which they enjoyed both what they learned and the planned cultural activities, increasing also networking.

Discover more about this course here