A teacher’s success is related to a high extend on the effective mastery of the skill categories mentioned below.
Addressing the question of “do teacher expectations have an impact on student achievement?”, a study in Switzerland found that when achievement levels were identical, evaluators would place students labeled as having a lower socioeconomic status (SES) in a lower track and students labeled with a higher SES in a higher track. This research suggests that teachers need to be trained in emphasizing high expectations for students, and they need further training in how to identify implicit biases that can have negative impact on student performance.
Anecdotally, teachers spend much of the day communicating with students through talking. Research on effective verbal communication suggests that clearly communicated lessons along with explicitly announced expectations have a positive impact on student performance.
Having a positive teacher-student relationship is an important ingredient in effective teaching. A meta-analysis of six studies found that motivation had an effect size of 0,48 on student achievement. It is imperative that teachers find ways to build positive relationships with students to motivate them to be successful. Moreover, showing empathy and cultural sensitivity is important in an ethnically and culturally diverse society in which teachers must look beyond their own cultural values to effectively understand and respond to the perspectives of a diverse study body.
Preliminary research has shown promising outcomes of professional development in improving problem-solving effectiveness, but little evidence exists on schools actually spending the adequate amount of time and effort to establish practice components or to invest in problem-solving protocols, provide feedback and coaching to teacher, and assess the implementations of teacher or team-based problem-solving solutions.
Teachers and education specialists working together can have a significant impact on the effective and efficient running of schools. Working as member of a team has been shown to have a medium effect size on student achievement.
These skills are personal competencies that are valuable across most professions, including teaching. Given the need to effectively prepare teachers today, the best available evidence is sufficient to guide those developing a curricula in soft skills for teacher pre-service and in-service training. These skills should be taught to every teacher and should become a part of every teacher´s repertoire.
Author: CONEXX – EU
