Teachers’ soft skills: the human core of learning

Teaching regularly involves situations where the lesson plan is insufficient, for example when:

• a pupil experiences anxiety
• a conflict interrupts the activity
• a child who typically remains silent asks a challenging question
• a parental concern affects the classroom environment.  

In such moments, teaching extends beyond subject knowledge or method. It is a professional act that requires empathy, judgement, communication, self-regulation and relational competence.

The soft skills teachers need most today

Teachers’ soft skills are not decorative qualities added to the ‘real’ work of teaching. They form the human infrastructure that enables teaching to occur. A teacher may have excellent subject knowledge, but if they cannot establish trust with their pupils, listen actively, collaborate with colleagues or manage emotional pressure, that knowledge may not reach the pupils who need it most.

The most critical soft skills for teachers include:

• empathy
• clear and respectful communication
• emotional regulation
• collaboration
• adaptability
• intercultural sensitivity
• the capacity to learn from experience.

These competences are interconnected. The Italian pedagogue Umberto Margiotta described teacher professionalism as ‘hologrammatic’: each dimension of the teacher’s competence contains the others. When a teacher provides feedback, every aspect of the profession is present: pedagogical knowledge, subject knowledge, ethics, language, emotions and responsibility.

Teachers’ soft skills: keeping pace with a changing classroom

Expectations of teachers’ soft skills have evolved because schools have changed. Classrooms are more diverse, multilingual and socially complex. Digital technologies and artificial intelligence have modified how pupils access information, communicate and conceptualise their future. The pandemic demonstrated that wellbeing and learning cannot be separated. Inclusion has become a daily responsibility, not an optional specialist role.

Teachers are expected not only to teach their subject, but also to support pupils’ confidence, belonging, social development and capacity to function in diverse social contexts.

This does not mean that teachers must become psychologists or social workers. It means that teaching has become a leadership profession. The Italian pedagogue Italo Fiorin described the teacher as a ‘learning leader’: someone who shapes learning with others rather than simply transmitting content. This conceptualisation avoids two errors: reducing teaching to technical efficiency, and romanticising teaching as a vocation without adequate support. A learning leader requires knowledge, but also appropriate conditions, time, collegiality and recognition.

Are teacher education programmes ready to develop soft skills?

Many teacher education programmes have made important progress in developing soft skills, especially in inclusive education, digital competence, classroom management and reflective practice. Yet there is still a gap between knowing about soft skills and practising them under real classroom pressure. We don’t learn empathy by reading a definition of it, or collaboration by sitting alone in a lecture hall. Future teachers need opportunities to observe, practise, receive feedback and try again.

This requires a different design for teacher education. Universities should combine theory with microteaching, role play, supervised school practice, reflective portfolios, peer observation and mentoring.

Pedagogical approaches such as service-learning offer particularly effective opportunities for developing soft skills in authentic contexts, as they require student teachers to engage with communities, respond to real needs, reflect on their practice and collaborate across different settings.

Student teachers should analyse not only whether an activity ‘worked’, but why it worked, for whom, and with what emotional and relational effects. In-service professional development should adopt the same approach: sustained communities of practice change professional habits more effectively than short courses.

Teacher wellbeing and soft skills are interconnected

Teachers’ soft skills are linked to teacher wellbeing. A teacher who can regulate emotions, communicate boundaries and collaborate with colleagues is better equipped to manage stress.

However, teacher wellbeing should not become a private responsibility. If a school expects teachers to be empathetic but provides no time for teamwork, no mentoring, no voice in decisions and no protection from excessive workload, soft skills become a mechanism for transferring systemic problems to individuals. School leadership, a culture of trust and structured time for collaboration are conditions for effective teaching.

The role of teachers’ soft skills in building pupils’ soft skills

There is also a powerful connection between teachers’ soft skills and pupils’ soft skills. Pupils learn empathy, dialogue and resilience not only through explicit lessons, but through the way adults treat one another and respond to difficulties. A classroom is a moral and emotional environment. If pupils see that disagreement can be respectful, that mistakes can become a learning opportunity and that diversity is welcomed rather than merely tolerated, they experience soft skills as a way of living together.

How schools, universities and policymakers can support teachers’ soft skills 

To help teachers develop their soft skills, schools, universities and policymakers should consider several actions.

1. Incorporate soft skills into teacher competence frameworks, while avoiding reducing them to checklists of personality traits. Assessment should focus on professional behaviours and reflective growth. 
2. Invest in induction and mentoring for all teachers.
3. Establish professional learning communities where teachers can discuss challenging cases, observe each other and co-design responses.
4. Integrate soft skills with digital and AI education. Pupils require teachers who can model critical thinking, ethical judgement and responsible communication in digital environments.

Finally, we need a cultural shift. Soft skills should no longer be treated as fixed attributes that teachers either possess or lack. They can be developed, supported and refined throughout a career. The teacher of the future will require deep knowledge and strong pedagogy. However, the future of teaching will also depend on the quality of human relationships that schools cultivate. Pupils remember what they learned, but they also remember the adults who helped them believe in their own capacity to learn.

References

Council of the European Union (2018). Council Recommendation of 22 May 2018 on key competences for lifelong learning. Official Journal of the European Union, C 189, 1-13.

European Commission (2024). Wellbeing and mental health at school: Guidelines for school leaders, teachers and educators. Publications Office of the European Union.

Jennings, P.A., & Greenberg, M.T. (2009). The prosocial classroom: Teacher social and emotional competence in relation to student and classroom outcomes. Review of Educational Research, 79(1), 491-525. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654308325693.

Margiotta, U. (2010). Abilitare la professione docente, Lecce: Pensa Multimedia.

OECD (2025). Results from TALIS 2024: The State of Teaching. TALIS. Paris: OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/90df6235-en.

Sala, A., Punie, Y., Garkov, V., & Cabrera, M. (2020). LifeComp: The European Framework for Personal, Social and Learning to Learn Key Competence. Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2760/922681.

Schonert-Reichl, K.A. (2017). Social and Emotional Learning and Teachers. The Future of Children, 27(1), 137-155.

UNESCO & International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 (2024). Global Report on Teachers: Addressing teacher shortages and transforming the profession. Paris: UNESCO. https://doi.org/10.54675/FIGU8035.