Why should Teachers have Soft Skills and what You can do about it.

The other day I visited my niece and was amazed to find how good a learner she was. She tried to imitate a lot of things, and even synthesised new things by amalgamating some of her ‘ previous learning experiences ‘ and putting it in the new context through slight context. Seeing the spider web reminded her of spider man which she probably learnt by watching television. She would tell me to ‘hush’ just like she heard from me (!) and would at one point almost convinced me that ghosts would be coming out from the cupboard kept in the dark. would pretend that she was worried and was ready to run away, not because of fear, but that she calculated that if she ran away from the cupboard the ghost would be powerless. something that she took from her experience and put in in the room with this cupboard.

I wonder how such creativity is not seen among the children who have started to go to schools for some years now. I was intimidated whether this talented kid would lose her enthusiasm of creating things over the years, when she would be focusing on A grades(!) in her beautiful report card (designed by the school authority (!)) and would be labelled as a ‘success’ by her teacher. As over the years she could lose creativity, likewise, she might also lose (or never acquire) other soft skills.

What are Soft Skills?

The soft skills are termed for skills needed in different aspects of life including your career. Let me give an example. If two co-workers are working in a team then they need to have good communication skills, team-building skills, collaborative problem-solving skills, etc. along with the academic knowledge and cognitive skills needed to do the job. The first 3 skills mentioned are examples of soft skills.

Why do the Teachers need it?

Teachers at schools and colleges need soft skills for the following reasons:

1. Though children spend relatively less time at schools, it is the classroom from where a child is best ready to pick up learning skills and knowledge. So I believe that it is the teachers who can play an active role in helping their students learn and nurture such skills. Soft Skills cannot be read out from the book. So it is very essential that the teachers themselves display it both among themselves and while dealing with the students. They can demonstrate these skills by embedding empathy, active listening, fuelling up team-work through positive feedback and encouragement, and so on.
2. Teachers need to have soft skills to be able to give instructions to their students that are suitable for the students’ learning styles. They also need to maintain strong communication channels with their students so that they can implement their tools found through research and at the same time receive feedback from the students. In the current time teachers must act as researchers. While keeping an eye on their students’ learning curve and applying methods to bring it high have been job responsibilities it is now even more important to discuss ideas with other teachers, parents, etc. alongside teaching the students in the classroom. Teachers need to be life-long learners. They need to keep their eyes open for students’ development, what would fit their learning styles and what would fit their learning needs. This can take place through constant monitoring of their students’ performances, discussion with other teachers, and also exchanging feedback with parents/guardians. Furthermore, they would need to look out for new researches and findings related to teaching and learning. It is therefore necessary that they have proper soft skills to do all these.

Let me list down some specific areas of soft skills and why they are important for teachers besides being able to teach the students well.

1. Communication Skills: It is important that the teachers become assertive and can able to exchange feedback with all the different guardians and parents of the students. And this means exchanging something more that writing sweet comments in the result sheets/report cards. It is also important that the teachers consult with previous teachers of the students to find out the learning’ needs of individual students and how to help them make progress.
2. Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills: Teachers must be able to deal with unwanted problems that are not related to classrooms but can affect the learning outcome of the students. Think of the learner who witnesses abuse at home. How does the teacher deal with it if the parents are reluctant about such cases? How will the teacher make sure that the kid is not dragged into it?
3. Cultural Intelligence: When it comes to teaching at schools using the curricula of different cultures and societies it is important that they can help the learners understand the subject matter in their local context. Moreover, the student groups may represent pupils from different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, who can understand the lessons better if they are taught by educators having cultural intelligence.
4. Emotional Intelligence: I used to believe that teachers receive a lot of training to deal with the constant and continually changing need of children in their classroom and so they could handle the emotional needs of the children as well as the learning needs. Little did I know that managing your own emotion in front of these kids can be a real challenge especially when you are trying to help these little angels be themselves and ask for whatever they want until I entered this classroom a long time back with the intention of conducting the class. At one point I could only hear myself. It was because I was screaming to the point so that everyone could hear what I was ‘trying to say loudly but politely’ in the middle of all the screams of urgent requests made by all the innocent kids at the same time. (Oh my God..sigh!)
5. Team Work: There are lots of competitions in many countries’ education system in terms of the exams of the students where the students go through tough competitions. It is important that the teachers teach the students to build teams and solve problems collaboratively. If they are good team-players then they can induce the same type of skills and attitude among the learners. Furthermore, if the teachers and the parents/guardians can practice a good team-work then the child’s creative potential and the academic performance will foster.
6. Social Media and Networking: Long gone are the times when we used to wonder which version of Microsoft Excel would be better to analyze the results of the learners. It is now the time to find out how computers and smart phones (and hence social media) can help us to connect with other educators and compare our teaching practices to help us perform better in the classroom.

How can the Teachers learn these skills?

Now the question arises how you can learn these skills. Or may be who will teach you these. You need to look for ways by which you can learn. Play the role of a student here so that you can further find out how to help your learners at school learn more efficiently. Here are some ideas by which you can try learning these:

1. YouTube: Try to find out learning videos. Look for videos that can help you to learn about the soft skills. Also, look for ways by which you can help the students to learn this. It will help you to teach soft skills in class (through establishing rules and activities) and can let you see (and learn) how these skills can be learnt that will help you too. As a trainer I learn a lot by attempting to train my cohorts of learners.
2. School Visits: Visit other schools where there are international students. Try to see and interview how the school actually accommodates all the needs of a multi-cultural pool of learners of various ages.
3. Social Media for Lessons: Try to introduce lessons on Social Media to the students. It can be done in the computer lab or if your classroom has the proper resources. I think this is of immense importance that we teach our young learners about how to use the ICT and social media efficiently.
4. Read a lot: We know that teachers should read a lot of books to enhance their knowledge, which has now been made easy through online publications. You can read in your i-Pads and Smart Phones. But you should not miss out reading other people’s/educator’s blogs. Blogs are personal opinions and experiences shared online for the benefit of the mass. You will learn how the soft skills are developed at other corners of the world, some of which are in fact through the classroom activities. Don’t miss out on it or you will be in the dark.
   You can get a list of some blogs for teachers here.
5. Share: Share a lot of ideas on the blog. it can happen that you have a great idea but cannot implement it in your school due to certain restrictions. You can be optimistic that there will be some teacher or someone out there who will be reading your post. You can post your questions or experiences in it and get your feedback.
   (Related article: Do Educators Really Need Blog Posts? by Tom Whitby)
6. Attend Sessions on Soft Skills: Self-Explanatory! Try to join workshops and training programs other than areas directly related to teaching pedagogy. The topics can be as diversified as Creativity, Social Media, Emotional Intelligence and so on.

Hope these ideas will help you to explore more about soft skills and why and how teachers should have them. Would appreciate your feedback and additional ideas.