For the best self-awareness and communication skills, teachers should consider conducting self-awareness and communication interviews with their students. These interviews not only increase understanding and rapport between teachers and their students, they also provide a unique opportunity for teachers to identify key learning areas and implement strategies to support students’ self-awareness and communication needs. These types of self-awareness interviews can be conducted during lesson planning, in individual classrooms, or through group discussions with peers or professional development coaches.
The Interview Process
In the initial stage, teachers plan and execute a self-awareness development task. They think about what information they would like to gather, what information they would like to present, and what types of questions they would like to ask. Based on this plan, they conduct individual interviews with their students’ self-awareness and communication needs. In doing self-awareness interviews, teachers gain important insights into their students’ learning processes and motives. Specifically, teachers gain insight into the following four areas: self-image, self-awareness, learning, and motivation.
During the second stage of the self-awareness development process, teachers develop the self-awareness tools for self-awareness building. During this stage, teachers choose a specific goal for the self-awareness exercise and select a suitable question format for the exercise. Most community integration programs involve a session lasting an hour. One of the most popular formats used in these programs is the mediation process.
During the third stage, the research and analysis are completed and analyzed. This stage facilitates the creation of action plans and a strategy for the practice of teaching self-awareness. Some communities opt to use a self-awareness mediator, while other communities work with teachers individually. Using a self-awareness mediator allows teachers to facilitate a better understanding of their students’ needs.
Data Analysis
Data analysis takes place at the end of the self-awareness training. The data analysis consists of interviewing teachers and staff, reviewing organizational documents, collecting qualitative data, interviewing teachers and staff again, conducting surveys, and drawing from other sources. These findings form the basis of the qualitative research report. Most community integration programs are based on male methodology (Mohler-terson, 2020).
At the fourth stage, teachers and educators implement the self-awareness tools identified at the previous stages. Teachers create lesson plans based on the identified self-awareness tools and prepare lesson plans accordingly. They practice these plans using the self-awareness tools during lesson time. During this time, students’ self-awareness practices also take place. Also, they make use of various student skill sets to enhance their self-awareness skills.
Finally, teachers practice a better understanding of their teaching techniques during an ongoing assessment. During the assessment, teachers are allowed to compare their teaching styles to those of their peers. They are also encouraged to compare how well they understand the concepts they teach with how they understand the experiences of their students. Upon completion of the assessment, teachers are then provided with a better understanding of what it takes for them to be good teachers and what it takes for them to be good in the classroom.
Self-Awareness Practices
Self-awareness practices and tools are effective in the development of self-awareness, cognitive development, and organizational behaviour. They can be practised by teachers in all grade levels and all environments. They are not, however, recommended for children who are too young to understand. Thus, the self-awareness development must begin in pre-school age. The mle approach, which is based on the self-awareness experienced by adults, is especially well suited for this age group.
Teachers at all grade levels should learn and practice the five skills associated with self-awareness: self-awareness of a situation or activity, self-awareness of others’ feelings and thoughts, self-awareness of physical sensations, self-awareness of time, and self-awareness of space. Once these skills have been mastered, it becomes much easier for teachers to provide a safe and healthy learning environment. Moreover, accurate self-awareness leads to greater self-knowledge; that is, the more one knows about a self, the more that person knows about everything around him or her.
Mle. R. Y. van Gogh, one of the greatest Dutch artists, said, “I don’t think I am, nor do I wish to be, a great artist. My paintings are more like humble attempts at self-awareness.” Given these words, it is easy to see why self-awareness is important and necessary components for building a successful classroom in which each student learns and applies the skills associated with self-awareness. Learning to self-awareness, in turn, will likely lead to a much better understanding of how art affects others as well as how students’ self-awareness can affect their ability to relate to others and to perform their assigned activities.
Certainly, there are many ways in which teachers can support their students’ self-awareness development through activities such as group reflections, one-on-one workshops and individual reflection time. But there is also a tremendous potential impact self-awareness development can have in the classroom when teachers themselves begin to understand what their everyday actions are having an impact on the attitudes and behaviours of their students. When teachers take an honest self-awareness course, they can begin to develop a deeper understanding of the self-awareness and emotional intelligence of their students. When this occurs, teachers can not …