Soft skills and teaching

Soft skills is a sociological term relating to a person's EQ, the cluster of personality traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, friendliness and optimism that characterize relationship with other people.

'Soft skills refers to the cluster of personality traits, social graces and facility with language, personal habits, friendliness and optimism that mark people to varying degrees. Soft skills complement hard skills, which are the technical requirement of a job.'

According to World Health Organization 'soft skills are nothing but psychological skills, which insists upon accepting the behavior of others along with their culture'. Fundamental soft skills put forth by WHO are , self awareness, self esteem, critical thinking skills, decision making skills, problem solving skills, interpersonal skills, communication skills, empathy, coping with emotions, handling peer pressure, and negotiation skills.

Soft skills are very important as they help:

Ø  to handle interpersonal relations

Ø  to take appropriate decisions

Ø  to communicate effectively

Ø  to have good impression and impact to gain professional development.

Significance of soft skills in teaching

Both technical and soft skills complement each other and the balance between these two is what makes a teacher a complete professional. Soft skills help a teacher by the following ways,

Ø  To communicate effectively

Ø  To become an organized teacher

Ø  To avoid teacher burnout

Ø  Help to develop strategies to become an effective teacher

Ø  Helps to motivate students

Ø  Helps to create incentive ideas and modern methods of teaching, listening skills

Ø  Know how to give good feedback for others work

Ø  Win peoples cooperation

Ø  Helps in goal setting

Ø  Helps to positively deal with criticism

Ø  Keep discussions from turning into arguments

Ø  Resolve conflict

Ø  Helps to know interpersonal skills and their empowerment

Ø  Helps in objection handling and problem solving

Essential soft skills required for a teacher

1.    Communicative skill

Ø  Ability to deliver idea clearly, effectively and with confidence  either orally or in writing.

Ø  Ability to practice active listening skill and respond.

Ø  Ability to discuss and arrive at conclusion.

Ø  Ability to communicate with individual from a different cultural back ground.

Ø  Ability to expand one's own communicative skill.

Ø  Ability to use non oral skills.

2.    Team work

Ø  Ability to build a good rapport, interact and work.

Ø  Ability to give contribution to the planning and deal effectively with others.

Ø  Ability to understand and play the role of oneself and follower alternatively.

Ø  Ability to recognize and respect others attitude, behavior and beliefs.

Ø  Ability to coordinate group work.

3.    Leadership skill

Ø  Ability to lead.

Ø  Knowledge of the basic theories of leadership and leadership qualities.

Ø  Ability to understand and take turns as a leader and follower alternatively.

Ø  Ability to supervise members of a group.

4.    Time management skill

Time management is the act or process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity.

The major themes on time management include the following:

Ø  Creating an environment conductive to effectiveness.

Ø  Setting of priorities.

Ø  Carrying out actively around those priorities.

Ø  The related process of reduction of time spent on non priorities.

Ø  Incentives to modify behavior to ensure compliance with time related deadlines.

5.    Event management skills

Event management is the process behind planning, executing and evaluating corporate, association, government social and educational events. Some of the key skills involved in event management are:

Ø  Attention to detail

Ø  Creativity (not just in designing the look and feel but also in how to get round the inevitable problems)

Ø  Planning and rehearsal

Ø  Budgeting

Ø  Multitasking

Ø  Team work