Introducing Power Posing in Education: Results and Future Perspectives

• In Event: Enhancing Classroom Management Through Professional Development and Teacher Education

Abstract

Classroom management is a major concern for student teachers. Inspired by Cuddy, Carney, and Wilmuth (2012), we explored the use of power posing as a tool for student teachers to enter the classroom in a more relaxed way. Power posing is the adoption of specific powerful postures prior to a stressful situation and is considered a simple tool to improve performance in the context of a social evaluation.
After a short introduction, student teachers’ experiences with power posing were collected through logbooks and interviews. Power posing is perceived as helpful and, although it felt uncomfortable in the beginning, students would continue using it in the future. Student teachers felt more confident, more relaxed and less stressed before entering the classroom.

Authors

• Elke Struyf, University of Antwerp

• Luk Smits