5 Unique Ways to Teach Interpersonal Skills to Students
School is a perfect place to attain knowledge, develop a social network and find yourself in this world of close to 8 billion people. However, schools and colleges aren’t mere places to learn. They also mold, transform, and shape learners inside and out. Generally, no one can join an educational institution and remain the same.
However, as digital transformation continues to alter the education industry, one of the major concerns is whether students will be able to learn social skills and more so, interpersonal skills. In face-to-face classrooms, students can interact, practice ethics, and learn public etiquette. However, this may be hindered when it comes to modern learning approaches like e-learning.
Generally, within traditional learning settings, students learn how to interact with others which bestows them with quality interpersonal skills. Interpersonal skills are essential for both academic and professional life. Students who cultivate quality interpersonal skills have a higher likelihood of building long-term relationships and succeeding in life.
Developing quality interpersonal skills also positively impacts related soft skills like communication, listening, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence. Therefore, if any educator is focused on producing all-round quality learners, they must focus on helping students develop interpersonal skills. But how?
5 Excellent Ways to Teach Interpersonal Skills to Students
1. Cultivate a Positive Learning Environment
A positive learning environment within a classroom or college premises exceeds having an access to learning resources, flexibility, and good lecturers. Students must be able to participate in co-curricular activities that can nurture their inner potential and help them to discover themselves. They should also be in a position to learn how to behave in public and why discipline is essential. Quite commonly, teachers focus on helping learners excel academically without assessing their soft skills.
A teacher should cultivate grounds for discussions, debates, and instances of asking open-ended questions. When students participate in these activities they not only master the 7C’s of communication but also learn the code of conduct and how to regulate themselves. Unknowingly, they develop quality interpersonal skills that are not only helpful in the classroom, but also in later life.
2. Promote SEL
Like emotional intelligence, the concept of social-emotional learning is also gaining popularity in the modern world. Generally, SEL (social-emotional learning) is a discipline that focuses on education and human development. It is basically how individuals attain knowledge and apply it in their usual life. SEL highly reflects the behavioral aspect of a person.
People with quality SEL skills maintain an upper hand on their emotions, social interactions, and social relationships. More so, they practice empathy and value relationships. SEL also equips learners with additional abilities like collaboration, partnership, and team management. Helping students to understand what SEL is and its significance in life can help them learn quality interpersonal skills.
3. Create Leadership Opportunities
The only way students can learn effectively is by providing avenues where they can practice their skills and showcase their knowledge. Students are generally the future of any community and nation. Sharpening them dimensionally through engaging and interactive activities can help optimize their potential. With that, educators can create leadership opportunities for example class monitors, student committees, and clubs for students to exercise authority.
Allowing students to take up positions of authority in colleges and universities can help them develop and reshape their interpersonal skills. For example, they will learn how to communicate with people of different ideas, and beliefs and learn more about diversity and inclusion. They can also learn the rules of engagement, especially in scenarios of conflicts and challenges. Largely, these experiences can serve as self-improvement mediums for students.
4. Preach the Significance of Feedback
Social relationships aren’t all about asserting personal demands and attaining individual goals. They are more about interacting with others, understanding them, and developing common ground. However, all that depends on communication skills.
Effective communication requires aspects of active listening, critical thinking, and assessing scenarios. It also proceeds to the effective interpretation of feedback and offering the expected response. Teaching the value of feedback helps students ask for others’ opinions about a matter. In addition, students also leverage feedback to make quality decisions. In this way, they develop quality interpersonal skills.
5. Promote Self-Awareness
People who know themselves for example their emotions, behaviors, thoughts, and actions are better positioned to understand their impact on others and how others perceive them. Being self-aware generally means having a good grip on who you really are inside and out. Individuals who are self-aware know the possible impact of their actions and behaviors. They are able to assess their emotions and thoughts and act rationally rather than depending on what they feel.
Being self-aware can help students too to understand the effect of their actions on others. When students are self-aware, they can build good social relationships and live happier in life. That’s generally because they are able to evaluate their emotions and thoughts and their impact on others which enhances their interpersonal skills.
Final Thoughts
Interpersonal skills are a type of soft skill that allows people to communicate well with others and as well interact in the best way possible. Good interpersonal skills can help students cultivate reliable relationships and networks that can become a cornerstone in their professional life. With that, it’s very essential for educators to help students build good interpersonal skills.
