Fielding (2016) asserts that effective listening is a crucial skill for learners as it helps them to comprehend and retain new information more efficiently. ‘These skills are not only important for academic success but also for personal and professional growth. As a teacher, it is important to incorporate activities that help learners to improve their listening skills.’ (Focus Future Learning) 

Listening is key to effective communication; however, listening is not the same as hearing. Listening requires attention, effort and focus. It is not passive as listeners we need to be actively involved.  

‘Active listening is a skill that can be acquired and developed with practice. However, active listening can be difficult to master and will, therefore, take time and patience to develop.’ (Skills You Need) 

Skills You Need note several barriers that could hinder the development of listening skills: 

• Many conversations that grab your attention at the same time, 

• Close-by dominant noises such as music, TV, traffic, 

• Physical appearances, 

• Unmet needs such as hunger, thirst, tiredness, 

• Personal prejudices about the speaker, 

• Having a closed mind. 

As teachers we need to model effective listening skills and provide direct instruction to develop the skill in our learners.  

‘Listening is an important communication competence that includes complex cognitive processes like understanding and interpreting messages, affective processes like being motivated to pay attention, and behavioural processes like responding with both verbal and nonverbal feedback.  In other words, to be an effective listener, the listener has to take into consideration what he or she is thinking about the communication being received, what he or she is feeling about the communication and also the context of the conversation, and what he or she will do in the process and as a result of the communication.’ Elizabeth Fagan, Characteristics of Effective Listening. 

How do we know our learners and/or colleagues are actively listening? Here is what to look for: 

• Non-verbal signs such as smiling, eye-contact, nodding, leaning in, mirroring facial expressions. 

• Verbal signs such as casual use of words and short phrases, asking questions, repeating and paraphrasing, summarising. 

Effective listening is a critical skill for learners to develop. ‘There’s no learning when nobody’s listening.’ Nadine Dolby, 2012. 

Teachers can use active listening exercises, wait time, visual aids, note-taking, active listening strategies, encourage responses to peers, pair and group work, and feedback to help pupils improve their listening skills. By incorporating these techniques, we can help pupils become more engaged, attentive and successful listeners. 

‘The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen.  Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention.’ Dr Rachel Naomi Remen 

This blog was written by Bretta Townend-Jowitt, Education Consultant and Trainer.