Daulphine,
Thank you for your post! I'm a big advocate of modeling positive body language. When doing this, do you find that students tend to follow and adapt their body language to match yours?
Dr. Jean Norris
I think modeling positive body language is important because the viewer may look closely at you. I think mirroring your student body language may not be a true reflection of who you really are.
Thanks for posting, Esteban! I'm a big advocate of modeling positive body language to put the student at ease.
Dr. Jean Norris
Janet, great point! Thank you for sharing!
Dr. Jean Norris
i think modeling positive body language is more effective because the student will feel the positive vibe and feel more comfortable to engage in conversation.
I think the most effective for communication would be to model positive body language. The student may be displaying a negative body language and it certainly would not be effective to mirror that back to them!
Thank you for your response, Tania! Modeling positive body language is very important when working with students because it shows them you are involved in the conversation and that you care. What are some specific non-verbal communication signals you personally use to convey positivity?
Dr. Jean Norris
In my case b. modeling positive body language. With the students I work with I have to show an example of contest.
Peter, Agreed! Thank you for sharing your perspective.
Elizabeth Wheeler
Lory, Interesting! What happens if the student is modeling negative behavior?
Elizabeth Wheeler
I believe modeling positive body language is a more effective way of communication because it set the tone and atmosphere in a very positive to the person you are communicating to. However, I will suggest doing a bit of mirroring your students' body language (pict some of the positive one) as to channel in with your student, and then gradually brings in the positive body language model to the conversation and take control of conducting an interactive of two way communication.
For sure modeling a positive body language is the key success to have an effective communication with your student, yet mirroring your students' body can helps you to get the student to open his/her heart to you and let you deliver the message and request more easily.
I think mirroring is good idea when you want your student to be comfortable. Once you achieve that, or if the body language is not showing that they are comfortable, perhaps modeling can come into play to help guide the atmosphere.
I believe that you need to have both to be effective. You want to match the students body language to create comfort, but then you also have to try and model or modify it so they start mirroring you so you can bring the conversation to a place that it needs to be.
Janet, Great examples and you are spot on, both with mirroring and modeling. Thank you for posting!
Elizabeth Wheeler
The time I find myself mirroring the most is when a student is excited. If they are smiling a lot or laughing and you see the joy they are feeling in their body language. I tend to mirror it because when someone is happy it can be contagious and I get excited FOR my student.
Mirroring is important so that they can feel they have commonality with you but I also think Modeling can help in communicating points too.
If a student is looking around and not focusing on what you have to say, by making a point of focusing totally on the student with your eyes and your posture, they may see that they need to focus more because that is what they are seeing... so it might work as "mirroring" in reverse.
Kelly, It's great that you are so adaptive! It's important to read your students' both language to help put them at ease. Nicely done!
Elizabeth Wheeler
In my opinion, Mirroring students' body language and Modeling positive body language are both effective for communication depending on the situation we are in. When I communicate with my students, by understanding his/her situation and making sure I am using the right method of mirroring or modeling is what I like to do first. For example, some students can seem uptight and afraid to speak up when I'm using Modeling positive body language, so I would use the Mirroring method to ease the situation and get them talking. However, some students may be better to use modeling positive body language due to what they are looking for in a business school - a professional environment. A Modeling positive body language will be used during the interviews in portraying what our school has to offer and how we can guide them with our professional advice.
That is a great question. I will at that moment then model positive behavior, listen and observe for, why the student is modeling negative behavior.
Juan, Interesting! What if the student is modeling negative behavior? What do you mirror then?
Elizabeth Wheeler
