Dr. Ruby Bakshi Khurdi, Founder at RAY Academy Swiss is a renowned innovative educator, celebrated as a LinkedIn Top Voice, TEDx speaker, and trainer based in Switzerland. Her passion for education is evident in her belief that learning and teaching should be an enjoyable and enriching experience for both educators and learners alike. She conducts highly engaging & interactive workshops on Public Speaking & Emotional Intelligence. As a prolific author, Dr. Ruby has made significant contributions to the field of education with her book, “How to engage learners in a virtual Learning Environment.” This publication reflects her commitment to enhancing the learning process, especially in the digital age.
Learning is a constant process of gaining information, experience, new skills and techniques in different situations. It is an on-going phenomenon, we learn new things practically every day by observation, reading, researching, environment around us as well as by our students. All of us have the ability to learn but the level of perception varies from one person to another. Our educational system is highly governed by assessment requirements – the teachers use different methods of evaluation to test the skills of students at all levels. The students are facing cutthroat competition to prove themselves every day; study hard consistently and finally get their dream job placements. However, modern-day educationists believe that teaching and learning should be fun; it should be a win-win both for educators as well as learners. The learning experience for our students should not be stressful, it should have the right balance of using technology, creativity and innovative ideas.
Understanding Human Resources Management
HR means people, it’s a very vast department in an organization which involves planning, recruiting, selecting, training and development of employees. The fundamental objective of HRM is to empower the employees at workplace, constantly plan on recruitment and selection strategies, improve communications in the workplace, develop performance management procedures, provide trainings and prepare employees for managing change. Our students can perform much better when they learn all these techniques in classes via real industry case studies or simulations.
Competencies of a HRM Professional
The concept of Competency can be described as relevant skills, information and individual abilities to accomplish the tasks in an efficient manner. For achieving an effective performance at job, there should be harmony in following factors: individual competencies, job requirements and organizational environment.
Although competency tells us HOW to do WHAT we do to achieve a particular result, it is not about creating standards but practicing by trial and error. It also reflects the organization’s values and mission; they are part of company culture.
Learning using Emotional Intelligence (EI)
Students tend to perform better and emerge more confident when educators practice Emotional Intelligence (EI). The classes tend to be more engaging, creating an environment of comfort and assurance.
But what is Emotional Intelligence? EI is the ability to understand one’s own emotions and further for social development, understand & connect with emotions of other people in society. In teaching, normally when students like a particular teacher, they tend to understand his courses better, they pay more attention and like everything about that course. However, if students do not like a particular teacher as he doesn’t respect them or insults them, students do not like that particular course. It’s the emotional reaction of students that makes them like or dislike a particular course.
Emotional Intelligence in Higher Education
The role of a teacher is to provide a positive environment in the classroom where students feel safe and confident to talk and discuss without being judged. Quality learning and teaching can take place if the learners feel connected with their teachers, and they empathize with them. It has been observed that teachers undergo a wide range of emotions while teaching in classrooms, it can be both positive and negative. But we need to pay attention to emotional issues like dealing with anger, stress, anxiety etc. by teachers as well as students.
Effective learning takes place if both learner and educator are connected – the teacher can easily foresee how his lecture or class is progressing by the behavior and performance of his students. If they are constantly asking smart questions, paying attention, coming up with creative suggestions it indicates that they are engaged and are enjoying the class. On the other hand, if students are a bit quiet, show no enthusiasm, are constantly looking at watch or trying to show that they are paying attention but actually surfing internet – the teacher should get the signal! Instead of being angry- why they are not attentive, he should empathize with them and do something more interesting…The more educators connect emotionally with their learners, the better results they will achieve!
Benefits of fostering Emotional Intelligence
The constant changes in work styles or management can be very challenging & stressful for employees, the students in higher education should be taught how to deal with those situations. Certain universities have initiated courses to help students understand & develop competencies in emotional intelligence. Inspirational leadership, dealing with conflict, managing change, cultural catalyst, keeping calm under stressful situations are some of EI Competencies…Each expertise plays a crucial role in managing ethical decisions and smart teams.
Challenges or barriers for achieving Emotional Intelligence (EI)
Assessments are very important for students as well as teachers, they play a vital role in learning and teaching. An assessment provides a guideline to students to see how they are doing in class; helps them to understand whether they are following the instructor’s courses or need help.
However, there are certain challenges which they face practically every day in culturally diverse classrooms:
- The ability to deal with different temperaments and behaviors of students.
- Intellectual competence to manage different academic levels of students in the same classroom.
- The art of motivating students to understand concepts and give their best performance.
- Being diplomatic when discussing sensitive issues like politics, religion or cultural differences.
- The ability to be calm even when students are testing your patience by arguing over something of very little importance.
- Understand the mental as well as physical state of students in the class.
- The ability to deal with conflicts and different points of views.
Conclusion
Emotional Intelligence is understanding how an individual perceives and reacts with other people around him. In order to be an efficient and highly successful educator, teachers must practice EI. They must be collaborative, high performers, tolerant, adaptable, knowledgeable and have the ability to understand & respect the point of view of their students. Their main objective should be to create a safe learning environment for the learners.
In today’s modern technological era, HRM educators should be competent to teach in various innovative and creative styles. Gamification and emotional intelligence should be employed by teachers for higher student engagement and performance during lectures. The millennials learn better and faster with audio-visual aids and problem-solving techniques. Teachers should empathize with students coming from diverse cultural, academic and professional backgrounds. Teaching methodology should be flexible, educators can experiment using different assessment methods to evaluate the students. Therefore, teaching and learning should have the right balance of components from different theories and engaging styles. The teachers should try to create a positive learning environment where students feel confident and happy to learn and deliver. Learning should be open; feedback based and trust oriented. Students will be motivated and self-driven if the teacher recognizes their learning needs in an appropriate manner.
The success of teaching process in higher education is greatly influenced by emotional intelligence of educators. They should have the right balance of intellectual and emotional competence to teach efficiently. Thus, the educators should offer customized methods of teaching, tailored to suit individual needs of the hospitality and business students.