Teaching Soft Skills in a Hard World

This book will introduce fourteen of the most important soft skills in the field of education. It will explain how each skill is used in teaching as well as ideas for how to model and explain them in college classrooms, field experiences, and student teaching. The chapters also contain ideas for administrators and mentor teachers who are working with beginning teachers. Hopefully, by learning the soft skills of teaching, pre-service education students and beginning teachers will become successful instructors and models of good citizenship in future classrooms.

Teaching Soft Skills in a Hard World: Skills for Beginning Teachers is a timely addition to the resources available to teacher educators. It addresses the development of skills that, while important, have received little attention to date. It’s easy to use within any teacher education class as each chapter provides background information relative to each skill, and follows with practical ways to model and teach the skills to preservice teachers. The classroom-based examples within the descriptions of the skills are practical, and demonstrate the content is informed directly by the author’s many years of experience working in classrooms with teacher education candidates. This book would be useful for any university faculty, administrator or new teacher. As Nancy writes, “Teachers who work to make content meaningful to students and discover innovative ways to teach them, are those that students love to be around.” The same could be said of the professors who decide to dedicate time to introduce the skills presented in this book., In this book, Dr. Melser captures the essence of fourteen important soft skills effective teachers need to be able to know and do—whether they are novice or veteran teachers.  In this well organized and easy to read book, the author provides some down-to-earth practical ideas and activities that professors can use in helping their preservice teachers learn these important soft skills.  Principals and supervisors could effectively use this book in providing clinical assistance to their teachers who need assistance in improving skills in such areas as communicating with parents, being more collaborative and professional, effective decision making, and developing a better work ethic.  Each chapter is filled with time-tested and proven activities that builds the essential soft skills teachers need to be effective., Teaching Soft Skills in a Hard World is essential reading for anyone preparing today’s teachers. The critical soft skills necessary to be a successful teacher are detailed, but the author doesn’t stop there. The real value of this book is that every chapter is also filled with concrete suggestions to model and practice each of these essential skills.

Nancy Armstrong Melser has taught at Ball State University for over 25 years. She enjoys working with student teachers and field experiences and is a Professional Development School Liaison for two schools in Carmel, Indiana. Her research interests include discipline and classroom management, as well as differentiated instruction.