Real education is about more than the transmission of information.
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Joseph Addison, the English essayist, poet and playwrite, said: “What a sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul.”
The quality of education that our children are offered is a hot topic today. Which means the pressure is on, especially for the professionals who are actually in charge of educating teachers.
A quality educational model isn’t just about a solid academic education for each age group. It must also emphasize the development of skills that helps students to cope confidently with different aspects of their lives: personal, social, working, and family.
The specific skills every teacher needs
Let’s look at some of the multi-faceted skills that should characterize the profile of a teacher. Formation is a life-long endeavor, of course.
Teamwork: Teamwork is not just being able to work with others, but participating in team meetings, which requires knowing how to listen and how to speak in a timely manner with positive and constructive contributions.
The ability to communicate: You need to be able to express yourself clearly in writing and in conversations or debates, with a style and language appropriate for the person you’re talking to, and be able to speak effectively in public. In an educational context, it’s important to know how to remain silent at the right moments and be able to listen to and understand the messages and needs of your environment.
Emotional Intelligence: A good teacher is always growing in self-knowledge and self-esteem, developing the ability to be assertive, that is, to be positive, avoiding reactions such as submission or aggression, without adopting defensive or violent attitudes, and promoting flexibility to adapt to new situations that can be found in any circumstance of life.
Interpersonal skills: Teachers must know how to listen to and respect the opinions of others and be able to make themselves understood with ease, with particular attention when the student has a different cultural background, taking into account factors such as ethnicity or religion.
Leadership: A teacher is a leader of their group, and must possess the knowledge of the characteristics of a leader and the styles of leadership, especially in the context of education.
Problem solving and critical reasoning: Teachers must development the ability to provide solutions to problems in the field of education: knowing the most common situations, knowing how to clarify the problem, analyzing the causes, and identifying alternative solutions.
Planning and organization of time: Efficient distribution of time is vital. Teachers need to be able to order activities or tasks to be done according to the importance attributed to them, as well as prioritize demands, establish deadlines, and organize schedules so as to perform their tasks without wasting time.
Autonomous learning: Teachers need to have, and infuse in their students, a sense of responsibility towards their own life with the aim of learning to seek and evaluate information, as well as analyzing, synthesizing, summarizing, communicating, citing, and presenting works always from the perspective of good management of their own ongoing personal development.
The education of teachers is a social priority for those who are aware of the fact that the future of our society is being planted today in the education of our children in schools.
Read more:
Education is good, but formation is better
