Nonverbals count in curating a motivational environment...
What do you think? What nonverbals?
Tiffany,
So true and so important for instructors to factor in as they prepare their instructional delivery. We need to "read" the students and then adapt our instructional delivery as needed.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Hello,
When I was in high school I took a class and we learned that most of what people say isn't what they are actually speaking out of their mouths;it's their body language. This includes (but is not limited to) slouching, facial expressions, rolling eyes, etc. To be a professional we must keep a close watch on our nonverbal communication.
-Tiffany B.
Engaging your students with body language and eye contact is crucial to gaining attention of your students.
Hi Matthew,
This is one of those things that we don't think about and then it becomes a part of our pattern of behavior. Introspection is seeing yourself as you see yourself and not as others see you. Your expressions may not be meant to convey negative or disapproving projection. But, it is being read as such.
A couple of things you can do. One, video tape some of your class sessions and review them. This will be a way of seeing yourself in another light. This is always a shocker and will serve to remind you of the messages you are sending with your expression. Another is to use a technique know as stop,think reward. As a student is responding stop for a second and think about your expression and then reward that student with a positive expression. The stop, think, reward method is a behavior management strategy that is very effective since it is quick and you get feedback from the students. The feedback will be in the form of their expressions. They will "feed" off of your positive supportive expressions. Even if the answer given is not correct you can smile and restate the answer slightly to extract the correct parts and add the correct information to the incorrect parts. This will encourage the student to continue class participation while sending a positive supportive expression out to all the class members.
Gary
I have been informed (both directly through student meetings and indirectly through student surveys) that some non-verbal communication is occuring via expressions on my face. This is sometimes positive ("smiling eyes", etc.) but often I am told I show signs of great disapproval in these expressions. Anyone have any advice on how to keep this in check?
