Nonverbal Communication - Useful Coordinates In Initial Training Of Primary School Teachers

The share of nonverbal elements in communication

It is a generally accepted idea that “communication is more than words” (Barmaki, 2014, p. 441) and, customizing, that “most interpersonal communication is nonverbal” (Zeki, 2009, p. 1443). Used, “in personal and professional social encounters” (Bambaeeroo & Shokrpour, 2017, p. 53), by the speaker and perceived by the interlocutor “consciously or unconsciously” (Bambaeeroo & Shokrpour, 2017, p. 51), nonverbal communication “can convey meaning better than words” (Bambaeeroo & Shokrpour, 2017, p. 53), “it reflects cultural values” (Bambaeeroo & Shokrpour, 2017, p. 55), the role and intent in communication, emotional level, physical and mental state of a person, etc.; nonverbal can complete the verbal, substitute it, but can also contradict it; by using nonverbal, especially gestures, the cognitive level can be activated: “our hands can affect how we think and learn” (Goldin-Meadow, 2011, p. 605). For didactic communication, it is emphasized, in the related literature, the importance of nonverbal elements in the activity of the teacher (Bambaeeroo & Shokrpour, 2017). The nonverbal elements targeted are: “giving feedback to the student”, “complementing the verbal”, “got contradicting the verbal communication” (Amorim & Silva, 2014, p. 867) and even the situation where “some gestures may be unhelpful, and some may even be detrimental” (Yeo, Ledesma, Nathan, Alibali, & Church, 2017, p. 10).

The advantages of optimal use of nonverbal communication by the teacher are, among other things, “a better relationship” between teacher and student (Bambaeeroo & Shokrpour, 2017, p. 56) and the ability of the teacher “to influence students’ learning” (Yeo, Ledesma, Nathan, Alibali, & Church, 2017, p. 1). Concerning verbal-nonverbal concordance and their inseparable character “in classroom interaction” (Livingstone, 2015, p. 67), specialized studies emphasize the idea that “nonverbal behaviour of the teachers was found to be highly consistent with their verbal behaviour while accepting students’ feelings, ideas, while asking questions, while lecturing” (Chaudhry & Arif, 2012, p. 62). It is also pointed out by the researchers the students’ attention to the nonverbal communication of the teacher: “students […] easily perceive every detail of the teacher’s behaviour and movement” (Kožic, Globočnik Žunac, & Bakić-Tomić, 2013, p. 143). Information is all the more useful because not all teachers are aware of these nonverbal elements and do not use them consciously to optimize communication with their students.

Forms of nonverbal communication

Specialty studies take into account the various forms of nonverbal communication used by teachers, by students (Kožic, Globočnik Žunac, & Bakić-Tomić, 2013), by children in different contexts: “facial expressions, eye contact or lack of eye contact, proximity and closeness” (Barmaki, 2014, p. 441), “gestures, body movements, [...] spatial distance, […] postures, and dress of an individual” (Bunglowala, Arifa & Bunglowala, Aaquil, 2015, p. 371; Haneef, Faisal, Alvi, & Zulfiqar, 2014, p. 513), “positioning within groups; [...] the silence we keep” (Stamatis, 2011, p. 1431), “the direction the body is facing, somatic, natural or artificial singularities” (Amorim & Silva, 2014, p. 863), touch (Bambaeeroo & Shokrpour, 2017), smile (Kožic, Globočnik Žunac, & Bakić-Tomić, 2013), etc.

The use of each of the nonverbal forms presents benefits in didactic communication; for example, it highlights the importance of smile and humour in the primary school, “when it comes to children […], who should perceive school as a little more play and joy, rather than stern and serious work” (Kožic, Globočnik Žunac, & Bakić-Tomić, 2013, p. 151), all the more so as the practice shows, unfortunately, the opposite.

The functions of nonverbal communication in the classroom

Communication and didactic communication in particular have multiple functions in relation to individuals involved in a certain communicative context. Within them, nonverbal use is beneficial for socializing, for the social component of the inter-human relationship (Kožic, Globočnik Žunac, & Bakić-Tomić, 2013). Nonverbal helps to “establish rapport” (Zeki, 2009, p. 1444) and “enables all participants in a social interaction to feel comfortable” (Kožic, Globočnik Žunac, & Bakić-Tomić, 2013, p. 150). In the classroom, the nonverbal has special valences for: (a) the success of the educational approach: “successful teachers use more gestures” (Kožic, Globočnik Žunac, & Bakić-Tomić, 2013, p. 143); (b) sending messages (Zeki, 2009); (c) transmitting attitudes to each other’s opinion and attitude of the teacher “about the content of that teaching” (Kožic, Globočnik Žunac, & Bakić-Tomić, 2013, p. 143); (d) facilitating and verifying student understanding of the message (Bunglowala, Arifa & Bunglowala, Aaquil, 2015; Haneef, Faisal, Alvi, & Zulfiqar, 2014; Zeki, 2009), “which ultimately results in better learning and understanding of the concepts” (Haneef, Faisal, Alvi, & Zulfiqar, 2014, p. 513), and “it’s also much easier for students to memorize” (Bunglowala, Arifa & Bunglowala, Aaquil, 2015, p. 372); (e) fostering “significant learning experiences” (Livingstone, 2015, p. 91); (f) motivating students (Bambaeeroo & Shokrpour, 2017; Haneef, Faisal, Alvi, & Zulfiqar, 2014); (g) classroom management optimization (Atta & Ayaz, 2014; Zeki, 2009) etc. The related literature also presents a series of customizations for certain forms of nonverbal communication. For example, references to: proximity and touch, which “reflect positively to academic, personal and social ability of any child” (Stamatis, 2011, p. 1437); facial expressions, which “contribute a lot in the teaching-learning process” (Butt & Iqbal, 2011, p. 11) and can be used “not only to make the concept clearer to the students, but also to create interest in teaching” (Butt & Iqbal, 2011, p. 12), etc.

Teacher training for optimal use of nonverbal communication

Studies conducted in practice in various educational systems show, on the one hand, that “learning and development of nonverbal ability is relatively rare in teacher study programmes” (Kožic, Globočnik Žunac, & Bakić-Tomić, 2013, p. 142) and, on the other hand, that the need to train teachers to optimize the use of nonverbal communication in the classroom is a reality (Haneef, Faisal, Alvi, & Zulfiqar, 2014; Kožic, Globočnik Žunac, & Bakić-Tomić, 2013): “a policy for the teachers training covering maximum elements of nonverbal communication should be developed and implemented” (Chaudhry & Arif, 2012, p. 63). In fact, many of the papers offer practical suggestions for teachers to take advantage of the various forms of nonverbal in their classroom approach: the teacher must be seen by all students, to keep “proper distance” from the students (Bunglowala, Arifa & Bunglowala, Aaquil, 2015, p. 375), to use “eye contact”, to look at the students individually; he / she “should purposefully use their body movements in their teaching” (Bunglowala, Arifa & Bunglowala, Aaquil, 2015, p. 375); the teacher must use the nonverbal “at all levels of education” (Bunglowala, Arifa & Bunglowala, Aaquil, 2015, p. 374; Butt & Iqbal, 2011, p. 14), to raise the interest of students (Bunglowala, Arifa & Bunglowala, Aaquil, 2015; Butt & Iqbal, 2011; Haneef, Faisal, Alvi, & Zulfiqar, 2014), etc.

Nonverbal communication used exclusively or to re-enforce verbal communication

Examples of messages sent exclusively nonverbal to primary school children are associated with: (a) classroom management: by silence (S2/1, M/10, T/7), disapproval (S2/1, S2/6) or “the finger to the mouth” (S3/5, S2/10, S3/4, S3/8, S3/9, S3/10, M/1, M/8, T/1, T/3, T/4); asking a child to answer a question, by looking (S2/1, S3/3, S3/10, T/7) or touch (S2/1, T/9); “palm stretched forward - meaning stop or time is over” (S3/3); “hand to ear” - to focus attention “on a particular conversation or audio text” (S3/4), hand gesture to continue (S3/7, S3/10, M/6, T/8); gesture with a hand - “attention to the blackboard!” (M/1); “swing your hand with your palm down (we talk slower)” (T/1); gestures of encouragement, OK sign (S2/8); looking at children, to draw attention (S3/1, S2/2, M/5, T/5); “permanent eye contact - active listening to the child” (M/6); applause - for a correct answer (M/6, S3/9, M/7, T/2), smile – “acceptance, appreciation, encouragement” (M/4), joy (S2/9, S3/10, M/2, T/8), “calm, relaxing atmosphere” (M/6); “hug, touch on the shoulder, on the hands - supporting the children” (M/6, T/10), “thumb raised (very good - OK)” (T/1, T/3); proximity (T/7, T/9); (c) showing a feeling by mimic (S2/9, S2/10, S3/2, M/6, T/6, T/7); (d) creating and using a specific code of the community children - teacher: “hitting the ears - they speak too loudly; looking in the mirror - looking for... the good one; opening the door - chasing away the laugh outside” (M/2), “raising the palm up (question)” (T/1); indicating the clock to return to the topic of discussion (T/2); “hand to heart for a visibly erroneous answer” (T/4); “there are many conventions (lifting the pencil to announce: time is op)” (T/2); (e) educational approach, in which “instructive” gestures are used: “indicating certain elements on a plane” (M/4).

Similar nonverbal elements are exemplified by students and teachers interviewed for the role of strengthening the verbal communication: (a) as an adjunct to the expressive reading of a literary text: to reinforce the verbal presentation of an action (S2/3, S2/8, S3/6, T/10) or the verbal message of a poem (S2/4, S3/6), to illustrate, by mimics and / or gestures, the feelings and actions of a character (S2/5, S2/9); (b) to reinforce a certain behaviour: verbal congratulation with smile and gestures (S2/10, S3/2, S3/5, M/2, M/3, M/6), applause (S3/9, M/2, M/10, T/9); eye contact (M/3), willingness to help - verbal message accompanied by “mimic and a look with a smile” (M/5, T/4); to reinforce the verbal behaviour of the interlocutor: to confirm a correct answer - head inclination (T/5), OK gesture (T/6) (c) to double, by gesture, the explanations (S3/2, S3/7, M/4); “instructive” gestures that reinforce the verbal message: “handwriting of the Lotus Chart with the requirement: Fill in...” (T/10), etc.

Extent to which students used nonverbal communication, during pedagogical practicum

Analysing the answers to question 3 of the interview, there is a difference between the students’ and the mentors’ opinion regarding the use of nonverbal communication during pedagogical practicum. Thus, many of the mentors and students of the master’s program emphasize the very low use of nonverbal communication, considered difficult by some students (S2/9, S3/7, M/2, M/4, M/5) or motivated, by mentors, by lack of experience (T/1, T/3, T/4, T/6), emotions, panic during lessons (T/2). In contrast, the interviewed students recognize the essential role of nonverbal in communicating with children (S2/2, S2/4) and think that they have used it – “consciously and unconsciously” (S2/6) - to a large extent (S2/2, S2/6, S2/7, S2/8, S2/10, S3/4, S3/5, S3/6, S3/8, S3/9, S3/10, M/3, M/6, T/5, T/9); as well as verbal communication (S3/2, S3/3, T/10). Between these two perspectives, contextual use of nonverbal elements (indicated by all categories of study participants) can be placed: for silence / warning (S2/1); during expressive reading (S2/3, S2/5, T/7), explanation (S2/5, M/1), games (T/8); “for socializing, even amusement” (M/1).

Nonverbal elements used by primary school children

The nonverbal elements observed by the students / mentors in the communication of primary school children, are placed on the mimic - gesture - look - distance from the interlocutor, decoded as: “hidden projections / intentions” (look - S2/10, T/3; smiles - M/7, T/5, T/10), reluctance to unknown people (S3/1), curiosity, relaxation (“wide open eyes, sitting in a relaxed way: relaxed legs, crossing legs” - S3/9), insecurity, stress (“the child is biting her / his nails, plays with her / his pen” - S3/2; “the child shrugged, avoiding the teacher’s eyes” - M/10; “looking down - timidity” - M/6). Concerning the key nonverbal elements identified in primary school, examples are placed between the general (“all nonverbal communication elements are important” - S3/1) and particular: mimic (S2/10, S3/8, M/1), look (S2/1) / “permanent eye contact” (M/4), gesture (S3/9), body language (S3/3, T/7), open posture (S3/2, M/1).

As an “observer”, the attention paid by primary school children to nonverbal elements such as dress and posture of the teacher / student is distinguished: children take the teacher’s fashion model (S2/6, S2/7, M/10, T/1) and frequently imitate her / his posture (T/6, T/9). Particularly, students and mentors interviewed noticed that children relate to student clothing, during pedagogical practicum, with respect (S2/1, S3/3, S3/4, S3/9, T/1, T/5), attention (S2/1, S2/2, S2/4, S2/9, M/8, T/1, T/9), admiration (S2/3, S2/4, S2/6, S2/8, S3/1, S3/2, S3/7, M/2, M/3, M/10, T/6, T/7, T/8, T/9), curiosity (S2/5, M/5), but also critical (T/1, T/2, T/5). As regards posture, it is underlined the idea that the open posture of the teacher facilitates the expression of children, their involvement in the activity (S2/10), noticing the positive reactions of the children to the posture and gesture that denotes “self-control” (M/4).

Considerations on certain forms of nonverbal communication used in the classroom

Among the forms of nonverbal communication, the emphasis was placed on the dressing and posture of students during pedagogical practicum, respectively on the student - child distance. In terms of clothing, the main attributes considered relevant by the participants in this study are: “model” (S2/1, S2/6, S3/4, M/1), elegant (S2/1, S2/5, S2/6, S3/1, T/4), pleasant (S2/1, S2/7, S2/8, M/5, T/1), decent (S2/2, S2/4, S2/6, S2/7, S2/8, S2/9, S2/10, S3/4, S3/6, S3/7, S3/9, S3/10, M/5, M/6, T/1, T/3, T/4, T/7, T/8, T/9), avoiding the extremes (S2/1, S2/2, S2/3). As elements specific to the context analysed, mentors noticed greater attention paid to dressing by students on the day they had lessons (T/9, T/10); mentors also signal negative extremes in clothing (T/1, T/2), the fact that “not all students have a dress and a posture that is an example for children and that requires respect on their part” (T/5). Concerning the posture, it must be, in the opinion of students and mentors, “just”, “controlled” (S3/3, M/6, T/7), sober (S3/5), reflecting a correct position of the body (S3/6). As negative elements, it is noted that the inadequate posture is associated with an inappropriate attitude: “some students have an ‘attacking’ position, […] others tend to always retreat” (M/5) and poor management of stress: “the chaotic position of the hands” (T/9).

For the optimal distance between students and primary school children, the examples (on the line of the study Bambaeeroo & Shokrpour, 2017) are: distance related to the context - with all class versus with one child (S2/10, S3/3, S3/4, T/9), depending on the particularities of the children (S3/2, S3/10); associating the proximity student - child with the idea of friendship (S3/2, M/4); concretizations such as: “not too close, about 1 m, otherwise it can induce inhibition” (M/1; similarly, S3/7), “like a stretched out arm” (M/6). There are also many “I do not know” answers among interviewed students, which require addressing distance as a nonverbal element in initial teacher training.

Methods / educational means / activities used to optimize nonverbal communication

Among the methods / techniques considered useful for children to practice the use of nonverbal communication, it is remarked: exercise (S3/1, S3/4, M/3, T/1), conversation (S3/4, M/8), demonstration (M/6, M/9, T/7, T/9), role play (M/1, M/6), didactic play (S3/10), “mime, pantomime, puppet theatre” (M/1), improvisation (M/2, M/6, T/8), and of the means of education, the focus is on the laptop and video projector, used to “project images […] or videos with different signs, gestures, mimics” (S3/3). As school activities, the following are exemplified: theatre (S2/10, S3/2, M/1, M/6, T/4, T/7), role play (S3/1, S3/2, S3/3, S3/4, M/6, T/5), dance (S3/2, M/6, T/2), imitation games (S3/2), games of body expression (M/3, T/6), and as “extracurricular activities: theatre, excursions, talks with specialists” (M/1).

Aspects of nonverbal communication required in pre-service teacher training

They are listed as nonverbal communication elements that require further training by pre-service teachers (answer to the second research question): “training movements” (S2/1), posture (S2/3, S2/7, M/1, M/2, T/10, T/9), look (S2/3, S2/7, T/7), eye contact (S2/4), mimic (S2/5, S2/8, S2/10, S3/8, S3/10, M/1, T/9, T/10), gesture (S2/7, S2/5, S2/8, S2/10, S3/4, S3/6, S3/10, T/7, T/10), movement in the classroom (S2/6), body movements (S3/3, M/6, T/3, T/4), clothing (S2/7), “space / colour language” (S3/3), smile (T/1, M/5). In addition, mentors draw attention to the importance of exercising “consistency between verbal and nonverbal language” (S3/9, T/1, T/2). As particular aspects, it is noted, on the one hand, the awareness of nonverbal elements that should be eliminated from their own behaviour: “looking frowning, […] heavy-footed” (S3/2), but also the opening to discover new nonverbal elements useful in the classroom (S3/7) and the formulation of concrete suggestions: to use, during a seminar, only nonverbal communication (M/3), “exercises / games for expressing intent / providing feedback” (M/4), introducing a theatre course in the curriculum of “Pedagogy of Pre-school and Primary School Teaching” (T/6, T/9).