DIMENSIONS OF INTERPERSONAL TEACHERS’ SKILLS IN SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

The educational area is one of the most complex and most responsible areas of human activity. The educational process signifies a multi-dimensional reality, which implies relationships between teachers and students, teachers and school associates, students and parents, teachers and parents, actually implies the relationships of all factors of that process. The teacher greatly influences the effectiveness of teaching, interaction, and relationship in the classroom, because of that many research focuses on teacher skills that affect the quality of interpersonal relationships. Pedagogical communication is realized through the interpersonal, intrapersonal and social relations of the factors of the educational process. The quality of the relationship in the process of education is the result of the teacher's relationship with the students on the one hand and the relation of the student towards the teacher on the other. The dimensions of the teacher's interpersonal skills, which will be further emphasized below, are supporting for students, control, empathy towards students, teacher motivation for students, and co-operation with parents. Good quality relationship with students established teachers who are realistic, who appreciate the students and who are empathetic, and who show a way how to share their feelings with the students. These feelings include warmth, care, and sympathy. Teachers who appreciate students accept them and show respect for them, taking into account the specific characteristics, aspirations, opportunities, and interests of students. The cooperation of teachers and parents is also featured. Cooperation is highly dependent on the personality of the teacher, his commitment and attitude which has towards parents and towards cooperation. Since cooperation implies a reciprocal process, it is necessary to have the same engagement and motivation of the parents themselves to cooperate with the teachers, so the cooperation can be complete. Successful educational work is only possible within a quality school environment. For this reason, one of the main goals of the educational process is to establish the optimal interpersonal relationships on which the interpersonal communication of the factors involved in the educational process is based. The aim of this paper was to determine the frequency of occurrences of some interpersonal teachers’ skills which contribute to the construction and maintenance of a positive school environment and the differences in appearance with regard to gender, age and work experience in the profession of teachers. For the purpose of this study, 100 teachers from 8 elementary schools from Zadar were examined. Out of this there were 80 female and 20 male respondents. We used a questionnaire containing 75 statements that examined five dimensions of teacher interpersonal skills using Likert scale. The data analysis first shows the frequency response of the examined skill. Then there was a comparison of the gender, age and work experience of the teacher. Research has shown that teachers mostly use medium and high support, control and empathy with the students, motivating students and cooperation with parents. The results also showed that male respondents used more control over the classes than female respondents, while they cooperate more closely with parents than male respondents.