Essential Listening Skills for Busy School Staff

As teachers, we spend a lot of our training learning how to be good questioners – and much of our career developing the relevant skills. Working on our effectiveness as listeners, however, is something that often tends to be overlooked – which is a shame, as good listening can make the difference between an engaged student, and one who feels disenfranchised and removed from his or her own learning experience. Teachers shouldn’t be expected to take the place of counsellors; but at the same time, the days are long gone (thankfully) when the role of the pedagogue was seen to be merely that of pouring information into passive receptacles and waiting for it to be accurately repeated back. Developing young people as independent learners, creative thinkers, and confident, competent members of society involves much more than simply getting them ready to pass exams – and listening, properly, to what they have to say is a vital part of that process. For that reason, this perceptive, enlightening book could easily be the most transformative thing you read this year.