MANY ROOTS, MANY VOICES

‘’Stop smiling and start talking’’

How can you tell a teacher is good or bad in teaching? Does he or she has to be extremely smart, friendly or is it important to be strict? When looking at previous research it can be concluded that communication is the key ingredient for effective teaching. 
There are 4 main types of communication that are associated with effective learning: 

• nonverbal expressiveness, 

• relaxed movement,  

• in-class conversation 

• out-of-class communication. 

Examples of nonverbal expressiveness are gesturing and behaviors like smiling.Relaxed movements include things as having a relaxed posture and moving around in the class. In-class conversation ofcourse means that students are able to talk to their teacher and out-of-class communication shows how accessible teachers are outside the classroom. The research showed that students from different countries all think a professor is better in teaching when he or she uses the 4 types of communication, even though the countries vary by different values and expectations.

Ofcourse, there all some small differences in the amount they think like this. Asian students judge their teachers the least at the nonverbal expressiveness component, followed by the Swedish students. A reason for this can be that Northern European people are in general less expressive and contact oriented. Swedish students do not really value if teachers use forms of nonverbal communication in class, like gesturing and smiling. More important however are the verbal forms of communication a teacher uses in class. According to Swedish students, this tells more about the ability of the teacher. So what kind of advice should we give Swedish teachers? Stop smiling and start talking!


Georgakopoulos, A., & Guerrero, L. K. (2010). Student perceptions of teachers’ nonverbal and verbal communication: A comparison of best and worst professors across six cultures. International Education Studies, 3(2), P3.