Chapter Two Educational Extension

The Art of Listening

Most people consider themselves to be good talkers. Are they good listeners, however? Robert
McCloskey might have stated it best when he wrote: I know that you believe you understand
what you think I said, but Im not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
Hearing and listening are not the same thing. Hearing occurs when eardrum vibration caused by
sound impulses is transmitted to the brain. Listening occurs when the brain assigns meaning to
the transmitted impulses. Thus, listening is an active process, or an art.
Virtually everyone listens; however, few do it well. Many times, people hear but do not
listen. They hear their parents talking, for example, but may not be really listening to them.
Really listening requires a great deal of effort and discipline. Taking the time to learn the art of
listening is very rewarding, both inside and outside of the classroom.
To become a better listener, first you need to acknowledge that you need to improve your
listening skills. Compare all of the hours you spent in school learning how to read, write, and
speak publicly with the formal training you received in learning how to listen. This is ironic
when you realize that 60% of your communication efforts involve listening (DeVito, 1985;
Friedman, 1986).
Strive to listen more and talk less. Youngsters ramble on and on, oblivious to what others
around them are saying, until they realize that adults did not appreciate their continuous chatter.
Listening is more than just being silent, however. Like thinking, listening is an intense, active
process that takes concentration and self-discipline. In fact, Barker (1971, p. 4) describes the
listening process as having four components: hearing, attending, understanding, and
remembering.
Hearing is the physiological, nonselective process of sound waves striking the eardrums,
with the resultant electrochemical impulses being transmitted to the brain. Therefore, any aural
information you wish to process and understand is accompanied by ambient noise which may
interfere with the reception of the desired message. In fact, hearing can be affected by exposure
to continuous loud tones or noise. Loud music and city noises can lead to auditory fatigue, a
temporary loss of hearing, and even to a permanent loss of hearing.
Attending
Although listening starts with a physiological process of hearing, it quickly becomes a
psychological one as students decide whether to focus on, or attend to, what you say. This
decision is directly related to their personal experiences and perspectives as well as the
messages relevance, intensity, and duration.
Listening involves focusing on the speaker and the intended message. In some cases,
listeners may not like what the speaker is saying, or they may not see the importance of the
message, but they will never truly know unless they sit it out and listen. Although you cannot
control all the variables that affect listening in your classroom, your awareness of such variables
can enable you to take a step toward helping students learn to focus their attention, quiet their
mouths, minds, and bodies, and lock in on what you are saying while blocking out everything
around them. Keep in mind that although you want students to learn to block out external stimuli,
you need to remain aware of everything that is happening in the classroom!

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Many variables impact students ability to listen. When a speaker is perceived as very
intelligent, attractive, or important, students tend to listen with greater intensity. This tendency
also applies to speakers who hold ideas, attitudes, and values similar to their own. Students also
focus upon teachers gestures, attitudes, body movements. Thus, teachers sometimes believe they
are sending one message (verbal), but their voice, choice of words, and gestures (nonverbal) send
a completely different message. Addressing four nonverbal cues will positively impact your
classroom communication (Sokolove, Sadker, and Sadker, 1986). You need to maintain direct
eye contact, let your facial expressions demonstrate you are really listening, relax your posture
and lean towards the speaker, and establish a close, appropriate proximity to the student.
Understanding
During the understanding phase of the communication process, students process and
organize the information and judge its relevance (Friedman, 1986). They base their judgments
based upon the messages construction, the reliability of the source of information, the social
context in which the message is received, and the comprehensibility of the message.
Remembering
Remembering is the fourth component of the listening process. Before students send the
information to long-term memory, they must decide that it is worthy of remembering. They
weigh the message against their personal beliefs, evaluate the speakers motives, challenge the
ideas, and examine their personal experiences and internal beliefs and values (Freidman, 1986).
Students emotional filters affect how they evaluate what they hear. These filters may block
words or phrases or, conversely, allow certain words or phrases to rush in and overly impress
them. They may at times even change what they hear, as with such words as homework, test, or
play. Like observing, listening can be selective to some degree. They must learn, however, to
evaluate information on its own merit. This ability is difficult, and it takes self-discipline, but it
will be well worth the effort. To help students reduce the effects of emotional filters, Nichols and
Stevens (1957) offer three guidelines:
1. Be self-disciplined. Withhold evaluation until they receive the total message.
2. Hunt for negative evidence related to the received message. Dont take what they hear at
face value.
3. Make a realistic self-analysis of the information they hear. Test the information against
their biases, values, and feelings.
The ability to recall information is also related to how often students hear the information
and whether the information has been rehearsed. Of course, the more times they hear any piece
of information, the better they will retain it; similarly, rehearsed information is more often
remembered.
Some students are poor listeners because they have developed bad listening habits. These
bad habits include the following:

Chapter Two Educational Extension

1. Pseudolistening. Good pseudolisteners look you in the eye, nod and smile in agreement,
and even answer questions occasionally. They appear to be listening when they are actually
thinking about other things.
2. Insulated listening. Some students avoid listening when they do not want to deal with an
issue or when it takes mental exertion to understand what is being said.
3. Selective listening. Selective listeners attend only to a teachers remarks that interest
them because they mistakenly equate interest with value. The fallacy associated with this habit is
that the message is often worth listening to. Of course, students should be selective at timesfor
instance, when they screen out the class next door and background noise.
4. Attribute listening. Attribute listeners are more interested in the delivery and/or the
physical appearance of the teacher than the content of the message. They should remember that
the content of most messages is more important than the method of delivery or the appearance of
the deliverer.
5. Stage hogging. Stage hoggers are interested only in expressing their own ideas. These
students and teachers seldom give other students the opportunity to voice their opinions; when
they do, they often cut off these student remarks. Teachers must be especially sensitive to the
habit of stage hogging.
6. Defensive listening. Defensive listeners take innocent remarks as personal attacks.
Teachers must realize that many students are overly sensitive and defensive regarding remarks
about their appearance and physical attributes. Children and teenagers can be extremely cruel to
each other at times.
Thinking often affects listening. It is a well-established fact that we can process
information at a faster pace than it can be delivered to us. Therefore, when students listen, they
have time for meandering off on mental tangents when they should be reflecting upon what is
being said. Becoming aware of this and other bad listening habits will help students become
better listeners. Teachers need to take stock of their own listening habits as well, to facilitate their
classroom communication efforts.
Styles of Listening
Teachers listen for different reasons and with different ends in mind. Indeed, listening
does and should vary from situation to situation. Listening to a student recitation, for example,
calls for a different style of listening than does helping a student with his or her problems. Here
we will address three styles of listening: one-way, two-way, and empathic.
One-Way Listening
One-way listening occurs when you are listen without talking or transmitting nonverbal
messages to the speaker. One-way listening gives speakers the opportunity to develop their
thoughts and ideas without being unduly influenced by the listeners. Common examples of oneway listening are watching television, taking in a lecture, or serving as a sounding board for the

Chapter Two Educational Extension

speakers ideas or problems. Students often need someone to listen to them passively without
giving a reaction or advice.
You are also taking part in one-way listening when you just sit back, relax, and let the
auditory input stimulate your senses. Listening to music for the pure enjoyment is an excellent
example of this type of listening.
One-way listening has limited value to teachers because students often misunderstand at
least some of the teachers ideas and do not communicate their misperceptions. On the whole,
although one-way listening has its uses, complete understanding of your message isnt always a
sure thing. Fortunately, there are other, better listening styles.
Two-Way Listening
Two-way listening actively involves the listener in the exchange of information. Listeners
provide feedback to the speaker by asking for more information or by paraphrasing the speakers
message. Thus, listening becomes a valuable tool in seeking understanding. Often, you simply
ask the student to elaborate on the information presented. For example, you might want a student
to provide more details on the method used to solve a math word problem, a student might ask
you to repeat your directions for writing a theme, or students might ask you for clarification on
how to use a piece of laboratory equipment. Restating the students message in your own words
is another technique for providing feedback. One example of paraphrasing might be So youre
telling me that you have problems with your parents because they are too restrictive. The thing
to remember in restating the students message is to paraphrase the words, not parrot them.
Active listening involves both verbal and nonverbal feedback for example, a smile or
nod shows comprehension, or a frown shows a lack of understanding. If you are observant,
active nonverbal listening techniques can be as effective as the more common verbal techniques.
Two-way listening offers some real advantages for teachers. First, it boosts the odds that
you will accurately and fully understand what students are telling you. In effect, active listening
serves as a double check on the accuracy of your interpretation of student statements. A second
advantage of active listening is that it often stimulates students to explore issues in greater depth.
Last, your use of listening encourages students to solve their own problems by giving them the
opportunity to talk through them.
Empathic Listening
Empathic listening or listening with feeling, is an earnest attempt to experience and
respond to what the speaker is experiencing or feeling. Only through such listening can you fully
understand anothers meaning. The empathic listener gleans the full meaning of the speakers
message by putting verbal and nonverbal cues together into a statement that reflects the content
as well as the associated feeling.
During the response portion of empathic listening, the listener avoids trying to clarify the
message. Instead, you simply paraphrase the students words or interpret the students verbal and
nonverbal messages. For example, if a student conveys that he or she dislikes your science class,
your reflective response to the content of this message might be, I believe you are saying that
you dislike science because you find the experiments too difficult.
Your response to a student statement can be related to the content component of the
message or the affective component of the message. For example, your response to the content of
a message might begin with phrases such as I believe you are saying or You appear to think,

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whereas, with responses that reflect the affective component of a message, you might begin with
I think you are feeling or You appear to feel.
Although there are no quick methods for achieving empathy with your students, it is
important to work toward this end. You must learn to see situations from the students point of
view. For example, if students turn in their work late, you should attempt to put yourself in the
students place in understanding the reasons for the late submission. In summary, skill in the
various types of listening is an essential tool for effective teaching. Indeed, the art of listening on
the part of teachers has become more acceptable and recognizable today than ever before.
Listening skill is now acknowledged as directly related to teacher effectiveness. All teachers
must be proficient listeners.
Listening Feedback
Classroom communication requires that the specific messages you encode and transmit
are received and accurately decoded by students. This is generally continuous and two-way.
Students continuously decode the information you send and send you messages in return, usually
in nonverbal form. Through their nonverbal behaviors, students indicate their degree of
understanding, agreement, appreciation, and attention. You should use this nonverbal feedback to
modify or clarify your communication efforts by giving additional explanations or changing your
instructional strategy.
The successful use of feedback in the learning environment is an effective way to
improve instruction. Many teachers, however, indicate that they rarely, if ever, use feedback as
part of their teaching strategy. But feedback is so important to the total learning process that it
must not be avoided or ignored.
POINTS TO PONDER

Go to a public setting and watch people interact with one another. How can you
tell if they are really listening to the speaker?
Who is the very best listener that you know? Describe that persons verbal and
nonverbal listening behaviors. How does that persons artful listening affect your
relationship?
Are you an artful listener? How can you improve your listening skills?

References
Barker, L. L. (1971). Listening behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
DeVito, J. A. (1985). Communication. New York: Harper & Row.
Friedman, P. G. (1986). Listening processes: Attention, understanding, evaluation. Washington,
DC: National Education Association.
the teacher. Pacific Palisades, CA: Goodyear.
Nichols, R. G., & Stevens, L. A. (1957). Are you listening? New York: McGraw-Hill.
McCloskey, R. Quotations page. Retrieved 7-25-10 from
www.quotationspage.com/quote/26806.html .
Sokolove, S., Sadker, D., & Sadker, M. (1986). Interpersonal communication skills. In J. M.