You might be reading this article purposely to include a professional skill for a teacher on your resume or you are looking to develop professional skills to enable you to teach effectively. Either way, you are on the right page. Mind you, you can check out one of my previous posts which had gone viral, I listed out the 50 qualities of a good teacher.
In this article, I will show you some professional skills for every teacher. Skills and qualities are two different things. While qualities are personal traits, a skill requires learning, it is an ability learned through practice. It is something that you learn to do over a long or short period of time.
These are the professional skills for a teacher:
Communication Skill;
One of the basic mechanisms of teaching is communication. Without good communication skills, learning is deemed ineffective. As noted on Chron, communication is both receptive and expressive. Teachers must be skilled at listening to their students as well as explaining things clearly. They must be able to break down complex ideas into simpler parts and smaller steps to transmit to their students. Communication skill is a professional skill for a teacher because it is important for the successful delivery of education to students
Classroom Management Skill:
This is essentially one of the foremost professional skills for a teacher. For without Classroom Management skills, it will be impossible to successfully organize and control a classroom. A well-managed classroom increases learning because students obey the rules and regulations of the teacher and spend more time on task. In short, Classroom management skills refer to teacher behaviours that facilitate learning.
Computer Skills:
The computer is now an integral part of life and a mandatory professional skill for a teacher. The computer literacy skills, such as Word Processing, Data Processing, Excel, PowerPoint, and Interconnectivity Operations, have a significant impact on teacher job effectiveness, including areas such as record-keeping strategies, student academic performance, teachers’ job performance, school discipline, and community services.
Curriculum Development Skills:
This is a compelling professional skill for a teacher but not very common. The curriculum development skill gives you the ability to systematically organize what will be taught, who will be taught, and how it will be taught. Curriculum development skill involves the implementation of different types of instructional strategies and organizational methods that are focused on achieving optimal student development and student learning outcomes.
Writing skills:
Writing skills are not meant for students only. Writing skills for a teacher is essential for clear communication. It is the ability to write meaningful sentences, lines, paragraphs that a student can easily understand. Writing Skill includes all the knowledge and abilities related to expressing ideas through the written word. The ability to clearly communicate through writing cannot be overemphasized.
Personal Development:
As a teacher, you will be dealing with different categories of people and for you to be a successful teacher, you must have personal development skills. These professional skills for a teacher involve the process of self-improvement which focuses on strengthening your knowledge, capabilities and self-awareness to reach your personal goals. It is about investing in yourself so that you can effectively manage others.
Counselling Skills:
Every teacher is a counsellor but not all counsellors are teachers. Counselling skills helps a teacher to help them better understand and listen to their students. Through active listening, rapport is built, trust forms and the student feels heard and understood by the teacher. This professional skill for a teacher also helps us manage classes more effectively and compassionately.
Other Professional Skills of a Teacher includes:
- Phonetics Skills
- Creativity Skills
- Stress Management Skills
- Leadership Skill
- Time Management Skills
- Social Skills
Counselor