engleski

The importance of teachers’ communication skills

Teachers communicate daily with a large number of education participants who differ in age, sex, socio-emotional maturity, and intellectual stage of development, and so they need to develop good communication skills. The teacher’s calling/ teaching profession is an occupation that emphasizes the importance of knowing all forms of communication with the purpose of better interpretation of all the elements that appear in direct communication between different interlocutors. Teachers must have highly developed skills in reading, and understanding of other people's verbal and non-verbal signals, as well as the correct use of communication forms and control signals which must not be in conflict with what the teachers say. It is also important to pay attention to other non-verbal signals which teachers can consciously or unconsciously use when presenting themselves as high-quality and competent professionals working with very young children and preschoolers. In addition to dealing with children, teachers must be skilled in communicating with psychological, socio- emotional, intellectual, professional, material and cultural features that characterize different people. The formal education for teachers that is the basis for the development of knowledge and skills necessary for the profession ; teacher education includes courses in communication and information technology but their education is not complete by attending those courses. Due to the importance of communication skills, teachers are faced with a big challenge and responsibility to keep improving and expanding their communication skills and knowledge through lifelong learning. The aim of this study is to show the importance of developing and improving teachers’ communication skills in order to improve the educational process. Research was done according to appropriate ethical standards, and the data are from the web pages of individual faculties. The study gives an overview of existing courses in information and communication technology at 6 different universities in Croatia that educate future teachers. These are the courses that give the formal theoretical knowledge to future teachers who then improve their theoretical knowledge through practice by checking its practical use and developing it further. Past experience indicates a great need for upgrading of teachers’ communication skills in order to improve the quality of their work.

communication; digital literacy; education; teachers

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