February, July and October

part-time

1. Soft Skills for Teachers10 Credits
Unit Aim: The aim of this unit is to provide learners with an understanding of ‘soft skills’, the personal attributes that will enable them to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people in the teaching and learning environment

Unit Introduction: This unit provides the learner with an understanding of the skills, knowledge and understanding of the soft skills required to support teaching. ‘Soft skills’ characterises a set of personal skills that can be helpful in the teaching and learning environment that help learning to develop an understanding of empathy and its applicability to the teaching environment.

The unit focuses on understanding the professional role of the teacher and the importance of ethical behaviour in promoting the well-being of the student and appropriate aspects of individual rights as well as delivering subject knowledge in the learning process. Learners will also be able to compare their own professional role with the roles of other professionals in the teaching organisation, with particular emphasis on the individual role when compared with the advantages of working as a member of a team. This will allow learners to identify the interpersonal relationships and responsibilities that impact on the performance of the professional teaching.

The unit explores issues that affect the way learners learn and issues that they may bring with them to learning. This provides an opportunity to examine different concepts of intelligence as well as other social or cultural factors that influence learning. Attention is given to more severe learning difficulties that need to be understood when considering approaches to planning teaching and learning and the importance of referral for more specific action in dealing with these.

The unit provides the opportunity for the learner to examine the communication skills required for effective teaching and learning, including the impact of potential barriers and body language. The range of the unit includes ways to use communication in managing learners and learning to diagnose ways their own communication skills could be improved.

This can be taken as a stand-alone unit or as part of the Professional Diploma in Teaching. The unit also provides the understanding knowledge required for the practical ‘Delivering Practical Teaching and Learning’.