Emotional Intelligence and Communication: body awareness as a resource

Abstract

Nowadays, the changes in the teaching-learning processes need competence trained teachers so as to motivate students in their personal growth leading to significant life- long learning. In order to achieve this objective, specific teacher training that recognizes the importance of developing emotional competences becomes necessary. In an educational context, one of the keys to success (securing an effective quality teaching-learning process) is found on the way interpersonal dynamics are established. A proficient teacher is the one that not only has a good competence in declarative knowledge but also in skills or know how to and existential knowledge (savoir-être).. The presence of the teacher in the classroom, his proximity to the student, his ability to manage emotions, to communicate effectively and to feel empathy, are all aspects that undoubtedly affect the work atmosphere at the level of student motivation towards improving learning outcomes, and ultimately, in his personal development. When we talk about the aspects of communication, non-verbal ones acquire a great importance. Teachers hardly receive non significative experiential training on aspects related to body presence and its expression in the classroom (somatic aspects). Body knowledge through a program of body awareness and nonverbal communication enables the development of intra and interpersonal skills, aiming to cover this training gap. This paper presents the preliminary results of a training program conducted in this area with teachers from diverse subject areas in the context of higher education.

Keywords

• competencias docentes
• trabajo corporal
• inteligencia emocional
• conocimiento enactivo
• comunicación no-verbal
• concienciación corporal