How come some teachers/instructors do not have EQ?
I would think that the fact of the label...TEACHER or INSTRUCTOR one would know the right thing to do. I mean afterall we are working with, relating to others...students...who look to us for guidance while learning. I think in my gut that all teachers should know that once they enter the EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT...all of the baggage is left on the curb...we can,however pick it up, once we leave. (smile)
I think that with the age of technology, EQ is becoming an increasingly difficult skill to acquire. When people are forced to interact face to face with each other, they have a lot of practice with that skill. The problem arises when technology provides a different medium to communciate with people. Because it's so much easier to text or to email, many people miss out on practicing their interpersonal communication skills.
Gertrude,
I believe it is fair to day that most people are aware of what to do. But we need to remember that we are all human and make mistakes. Sometimes it is easier to go with the flow, but professionally that is not always a choice. Gentle reminders helps us along the way.
Philip Campbell
In some ways I think the on-line and technological environment can make it harder for teachers to maintain EQ partially because students think that they can get away with "venting" or telling a professor exactly how they feel about them with out using any sort of respect or "netiquette" because they don't have to confront them face to face and they think that there will be few to no repercussions for their behavior (which is usually true). Sad to say, but if this didn't make a teacher's job stressful enough, how much more depressed do you think they feel now? And, we get bombarded with this at a higher frequency because many students feel that they are entitled to get a good grade just because they paid their tuition - they think it's supposed to be easier than a regular classroom class. I don't think that it's that they don't have EQ, it's that it has become harder to maintain when it's so much easier for students to be anonymously negative.
Actually, another answer to your question would be that, yes, some teachers do NOT have EQ. If you remember from the presentation that some people have more hard skills than soft skills...To be able to teach at the college level, you only need a Master's degree or higher in your subject area to teach, NOT an actual teaching credential like you do to teach grammar through high school. Those teachers who have actual teaching credentials are taught HOW to TEACH, not just the subject. The best college professors that I have had many times were often those who had previously taught Jr. High or High School before teaching college. So, some of the teachers that you may be encountering were hired specifically for their "hard skill" knowledge in industry and not for their "soft skill" ability.
I am inclined to disagree with you Joanna. I am one of those “hard skills†hires. From my vew point I see teachers who have been doing it for many years tend to become slightly jaded. They have heard every excuse as to why the paper wasn’t finished. I think a loss of empathy partially to blame for the loss of EQ. I think these instructors have the EQ flame but the fire is dying out. Somehow it must be rekindled.
I totally agree that most people are aware of their ability to affect others in both directions: positive and negative. It can be very difficult to always keep a positive attitude and maintain it when others around us seem to thrive in the high drama and aren't as considerate of others around them. I think I like to take the attitude (at least most days!) that there is always something worse than any thing that might be happening at the moment and we can "choose" to deal with it or we can stay miserable, angry, stressed. I personally want to be be around positive and look to how we can make the environment better-doesn't have to be perfect, just that it can be managed and productive.
