The Importance of Nonverbal Aspects of Communication in Teaching and the Pre- and Inservice Teacher Education Curriculum

The ability to express and decode nonverbal cues is assumed to be an essential quality in communication and teaching. To validate, generalize and expand upon earlier research on the importance of nonverbal competencies in communication and teaching, i.e., the relationship of nonverbal competencies (e.g., expressiveness/"charisma" and nonverbal sensitivity) and psycho-social and personality dimensions, a coordinated set of 13 correlational studies was conducted with students of education and student teachers (N=1339). Significant positive relationships were found between expressiveness/"charisma" and success in interpersonal relations, extraversion, competence- and control orientations, and self-efficacy. As opposed to many studies in the USA results revealed low or/and inconsistent correlations between nonverbal decoding ability and the same psycho-social and personality dimensions. Nonverbal expressiveness/"charisma" can be seen as an important dimension for effective teaching in the USA and Germany. For the importance of Nonverbal Sensitivity we still have to rely on consideration and findings from studies conducted in the USA. Recommendations for infusing this aspect of communication/teaching success into pre- and inservice teacher education will be discussed. (Contains 1 footnote, 1 figure and 10 tables.)