Mastering the art of effective listening key to learning outcomes

Students from Milimani High School in Naivasha follow proceedings after teachers resumed classes after one month. [Antony Gitonga, Standard]

A professor I was working under many moons ago once told me that listening is arguably the hardest skill ever. That a whole legion of us have poor listening skills, or lack in it entirely. We love the sound of our voices more instead. He quipped that active, effective listening alone could fix more than half the problems we face as humanity (of course he didn’t quote any authority).

But you catch the drift, no?

The skill of listening is the first linguistic skill that humans acquire. In fact, fetuses hear voices outside the womb as early as the fifth month of gestation. Given all the listening that we do, you would think we’d be good at it! In fact, most of us are not, and research suggests that we only remember between 25 per cent and 50 per cent of what we hear, as described by Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience (a model that incorporates several theories related to instructional design and learning processes). That means that when you talk to your students, boss, colleagues, customers, or spouse for 10 minutes, they pay attention to less than half of the conversation. Turn it around and it reveals that when you are receiving directions or being presented with information, you aren’t hearing the whole message either. You hope the important parts are captured in your 25-50 per cent, but what if they’re not?

Active listening

The way to improve your listening skills is to practice “active listening.” Active listening requires you to listen attentively to a speaker, understand what they’re saying, respond and reflect on what’s being said, and retain the information for later. This keeps both listener and speaker actively engaged in the conversation. It is where you make a conscious effort to hear not only the words that another person is saying but, more importantly, the complete message being communicated. You need not allow yourself to become distracted by whatever else may be going on around you, or by forming counterarguments while the other person is still speaking. Nor can you allow yourself to get bored, and lose focus on what the other person is saying.

One goal of active listening and being an effective listener is to set a comfortable tone that gives your instructor an opportunity to think and speak. Allow “wait time” before responding. Don’t cut instructors off, finish their sentences, or start formulating your answer before they’ve finished. Pay attention to your body language as well as your frame of mind when engaging in active listening. Be focused on the moment, make eye contact, and operate from a place of respect as the listener.

Active listening requires an open mind. As a listener and a leader, be open to new ideas, new perspectives, and new possibilities when practicing active listening. Even when good listeners have strong views, they suspend judgment, hold any criticisms, and avoid interruptions like arguing or selling their point right away.

When you’re the listener, don’t assume that you understand your instructor correctly — or that they know you’ve heard them. Mirror your instructor information and emotions by periodically paraphrasing key points. Reflecting is an active listening technique that indicates that you and your counterpart are on the same page.

Don’t be shy to ask questions about any issue that’s ambiguous or unclear when engaging in active listening. As the listener, if you have doubt or confusion about what your instructor has said, say something like, “Let me see if I’m clear. Are you talking about …?” or “Wait a minute. I didn’t follow you.” Open-ended, clarifying, and probing questions are important active listening tools that encourage the instructor to do the work of self-reflection and problem solving, rather than justifying or defending a position, or trying to guess the “right answer.” When engaging in active listening, the emphasis is on asking, rather than telling. It invites a thoughtful response and maintains a spirit of collaboration.

Empathy for others

Restating key themes as the conversation proceeds confirms and solidifies your grasp of the other person’s point of view. It also helps both parties to be clear on mutual responsibilities and follow-up. Briefly summarise what you’ve understood while practicing active listening, and ask the other person to do the same.

 Why is it important? First, when a leader engages in active listening, it helps establish trust between both parties, shows empathy for others, and fosters psychological safety. Being a thoughtful listener, asking questions, seeking clarification, and encouraging others to share their perspective and will reinforce your role as a spouse, friend, colleague, coach, and mentor. Being a strong, attentive listener who can provide effective feedback will also enable you to coach your people more effectively.

How can it be developed/honed? To boost one’s active listening skills and put these active listening techniques into practice, tip such as limiting interruptions, paying attention to what’s being said, not what you want to say, being okay with silence, restating the key points you hear and encouraging the other person to offer ideas and solutions before you give yours, are extremely vital steps one can take to hone their active listening skills.

A 2015 published research done by Sekvan Kuzu (Faculty of Education, Mustafa Kemal University, Turkey) aimed at shedding light on active listening strategies of academically successful university students. The findings of the research depicted that students used the cognitive strategies of paying attention, taking notes, making associations and analogies, and asking questions while listening; and the affective strategies of attending class on time and being calm while listening to the instructor, as well as were interested in, eager about, and motivated to understand the subject, yet after a certain amount of time, especially in the last 10 to 15 minutes of the class, got bored. Furthermore, among psychomotor-based strategies, students used positive ones such as sitting close to the board, following the instructor with both the head and eyes, making eye contact with the instructor, and sitting up straight.

A listening culture in which students are made passive has persisted for years in primary education. As part of this culture, a preference for students who listen to the teacher quietly, sit still, and do not make noise in learning environments has partially rendered students unable to develop linguistic skills such as listening and to self-actualise. Yet, the process of listening is a multidimensional one in which individuals participate with nonverbal and verbal language, thoughts, and emotions. As they do in their social lives, learners should use linguistic skills in formal learning environments and be able to actualise their linguistic skills without feeling pressured. The pressures of failing and of being unable to express ideas well can stifle their natural behaviours and promote their developing into individuals deprived of basic skills.

According to data obtained from the study, academically successful university students used different cognitive, affective, and psychomotor-based strategies to achieve active listening. Students generally used cognitive strategies such as paying attention, taking notes, making associations and analogies, asking questions, integrating information, making inferences, seeking the main idea, setting objectives; affective strategies such as attending class on time, being motivated, being calm, and enjoying the lesson; and psychomotor-based strategies such as being close to the board, following along with both the head and eyes, making eye contact, generating feedback, sitting up straight, and paying attention to gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, and stresses in speech.

At the same time, among negative psychomotor-based strategies, students expressed being bored and doing other things while listening. In this sense, several factors contribute to active listening in listening-oriented learning environments, including how eager students are to learn the lesson, to what extent they pay attention to the lesson, their preparedness, their mood, whether they like the subject, whether they attend class on time, the desk that they sit at, and its surroundings.

Learning environments should, therefore, be designed according to learning approaches in which social skills are developed, students are active, and learning tasks are devised according to students’ interests and abilities. It is important that each student develops the strategy of listening during primary education and can use many types of listening to that end, as well as that activities directed toward skills of listening are sufficiently included in learning environments. Accordingly, listening environments in which individuals are sufficiently motivated and stimulated need to be designed within learning environments. These environments should ensure that along with verbal stimulations, factors that appeal to other sensory channels are accommodated in order to maintain and even improve students’ attentiveness.