Teaching Competencies and Classroom Performance of University Teachers: Soft Skills as a Mediator

Abstract

Soft skills are personal qualities that enable teachers to better engage with students. The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of soft skills as a mediator in the relationship between teaching competencies and classroom performance among university teachers. This study was quantitative and followed the positivist research paradigm. The researchers selected the study sample using multistage sampling. Two questionnaires and an observation sheet were used in this study. Researchers collected data from 132 public-sector university teachers in southern Punjab. SPSS and PROCESS macro were used to analyze the data. The data was analyzed using mediation analysis. The major conclusion of this study was that all the variables (teaching competencies, soft skills, and classroom performance) had a significant relationship, and soft skills also mediated between teaching competencies and classroom performance of university teachers. The major recommendation of the study is that future researchers include variables that may influence the performance of teachers in the classroom, such as job satisfaction, work discipline, motivation, and so forth, and also change the indicators for teaching competencies and soft skills.