Nonverbal behavior in Education

This chapter is about the various ways nonverbal research is used in education. Various methods, instruments, and ways of using nonverbal information in education are delineated, and relevant methodological issues concerning nonverbal research in education are also discussed in this chapter. If the main objectives of schooling are cognitive development and scholastic achievement, then it is the verbal domain that is most significant in education. However, the chapter theorizes that the nonverbal domain gains its significance by mediating the success of the verbal domain in achieving the central goals of education. Nonverbal communication can facilitate and improve the quality of the teaching/learning process, but it often hinders the process either for the entire student body or for defined groups of students. The high frequency of deception in teachers' classroom behavior is another reason for the significance of nonverbal behavior in education.