![]() ![]() Students who learn to talk constructively with classmates on a regular basis are developing social capital that will serve them well in life, college, and the workplace. Teachers can model effective listening skills, but there is no substitute for having students practice those skills in the classroom with classmates, beginning with pairs. “Unfortunately, for a lot of students, the opposite of speaking is waiting to speak again, rather than listening” (p. A student’s willingness to listen in classrooms, “is a marker of emotional regulation,” affirm Frey, Fisher, & Smith (2019). Why is active listening in the classroom important?Īs teachers and students come back into classrooms after a long period of mostly virtual learning, building relationships becomes paramount if we want students to communicate effectively and work collaboratively. The same is true in classrooms teachers and students alike can learn to listen to what others are saying. Inviting students to pause, reflect, pair, and share allows them to take part in their own learning – what a concept! I have found in my personal life that those with whom I am conversing appreciate it when I listen to what they are saying, without being otherwise distracted. I thought, “Pay attention, Eddie!” was the be-all and end-all of listening, aka “Sit up and pretend to listen!” It took me a long time to realize that active listening is a critical part of the learning – and teaching – process. They have learned to look at the teacher and smile, however, which often led me, in my early years, to think I had their attention. What I often see is one student after another going to a better place in their minds, until the whole class is, mentally at least, somewhere else. ![]() When I am in classrooms in a coaching capacity, I watch the kids, not the teacher. Lecturing was – and still is in many classrooms – the main mode of delivery. My experience as a student in high school and college had reinforced that belief I had many a college professor who talked from yellowed notes. Time was of the essence in my classroom, and I had no idea that, sometimes, less is more. ![]() After all, I had much information to impart because I had many centuries of American or European history to cover. When I began my teaching career five decades ago, I truly believed talking was teaching, and silence on the part of my students was golden. We still inhabit a professional environment, in classrooms and in training workshops, where talk is king – rattling on from the front of the room, that is. “How many have had a listening class in college?” One or two sets of hands. I often pose the following two questions in my presentations to educators: “How many of you had a speech class in college?” Almost every hand goes up. Core Instruction and Formative Assessmentīy: Ron Nash Do school environments encourage active listening?.Virtual Instructional Leadership Institute. ![]()
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