What are teaching skills?
What are teaching skills? Describe the components of presentation skills.
Teaching skills are the hard and soft skills that help a teacher keep students engaged. These skills can also help teachers position themselves as an educator, earning the attention and respect of their students. Some teaching skills come naturally to some, whereas others may require development with practice. Developing teaching skills is only one part of becoming a good teacher. It can also be helpful to learn how to highlight these skills on your resume and during your teaching interview.
- Have an agenda.
A good way to begin your presentation is to start with an overview so your audience knows there’s a focused agenda and a purpose to what they’re listening to. Once you’ve provided that outline, you’ll want to engage your audience and hold their attention by explaining “what is” (what is the problem, idea, process, etc.) that you want to explain or change. Then you can discuss “what could be”.
- Keep it simple.
Keep your audience in mind – long, over-complicated sentences, too many statistics, and numbers, or even never-ending stories can all serve to overwhelm your audience.
A good way to keep it simple: use and stick to a 3-part list with the main points outlined in your introduction. Reiterate the points at the beginning and end, and there’s a better chance your audience will have a strong takeaway of the key information.
Also Read: What is a guided discussion method?
- Use visuals.
Help your audience visualize what you are saying by using imagery. Images help the audience remain engaged, whether you include pictures, graphs, charts, or animations. These visuals will only help enhance and reinforce the main points of your presentation.
- Be honest and conversational.
Many of the most powerful speakers and speeches capture the attention of their audiences because they are passionate, firm, and educated on their topic. And trust us, the audience can tell. Prior to giving a presentation, you should, of course, feel knowledgeable and confident about the topic you are discussing, and if possible, you should feel passionate about your topic of discussion. This can only help your audience connect more with your presentation. Use stories, real-life examples and ask and answer questions to help fuel this engagement.
- For in-person presentations, master non-verbal behavior.
If you are presenting at an event, in front of a client, or even for an internal company project, mastering and utilizing non-verbal behavior can help you engage with your audience. Using calm hand gestures, smiling, and changing up your vocals here and there can help you retain attention and enhance your speaking. Managing nervous non-verbal behavior can also help you seem more confident; try not to cross your arms, wring your hands or put your hands in your pockets.
- Rehearse and don’t be afraid to ask for help!
Practice, practice, practice. Nothing becomes great without first trying, sometimes failing (or failing often) and trying again. The best way to find mistakes and fix any potential issues with your presentation is by doing a dry-run in front of a practice audience. You’ll be able to get real feedback and it can help soothe nerves and inspire confidence (and even excitement) for your presentation. Ask for advice from peers, coworkers, family, friends, etc. Go to someone you view as an expert. Keep working on it and push yourself until you feel comfortable going into the event.
Although, there’s no one way to properly give a presentation or overcome public speaking anxiety, breaking down the key pieces of speaking can be a good place to start. When prepping, take things one step at a time and you’ll become even better with every presentation you make.