People need to feel heard in order to feel valued. Students are people learning new concepts and techniques and will make mistakes. Hearing their needs and concerns is important but more importantly addressing their needs fully can only be done by truly listening and understanding their point of view. Their perspective on the situation should be validated wholly before they are redirected to the situation as a whole or that another perspective is brought up. This is part of the learning process and as instructors we need to bring this concept to practice.
I am constantly working on my listening skills - I am a talker! That said, because I want to talk, I am actively listening to the speaker and formulating thoughts so when I feel it is time for me to speak, I have questions/comments ready. It's hard to bite my tongue but I do, and the reward is great when a student can truly open up and feel comfortable enough to speak of their concerns. I am better at face to face, real time discussions and am challenged by phone and zoom conversations which are my primary modes of communicating right now.
I know i need to work on my listening skills. Too many times i already answer the question before the student is done asking it. That's bad and not helping me.
Active listening is an important part of listening to a concern being brought to your attention. Ensuring you understand the concern will communicate to the student that you care about what they are saying. Not answering too quickly is also important to pause and think about what you heard and have a thought out response.
It's important notjust to listen but to give off the apropriate verbal and nonverbal cues.
I have learned to be more of a good listener, and not to response right away :)
Being more of an active listener and not responding too quickly.
Both verbal and non-verbal cues are important in demonstrating active listening. I have always had an issue with my facial expressions - communicating the exact opposite of what I intended.
Apply a mixture of active and passive listening.
I will apply more passive listening.
I picked up on the fact i need to read "the master teacher"
Make sure the student knows you are listening by repeating their question.
Certainly I agree in the importance of been a good listener.
It is important that you create good listening habits that focus your atention on the speaker.
Active listening is best! I always try to repeat the questions my students ask me. This serves two purposes: one, it makes sure that I understood what the student was trying to understand (and sometimes it clarifies this for the student as well!); two, if there are other people present who might need to hear the question it ensures that they are able to hear and understand what is being asked.
Sometimes simply re-phrasing the question can help the student realize where they are going wrong or make the topic simply click and then they don't need an answer. If the student is the only one present I will try and get them to explain the situation/problem and solution to me to make sure they truly do understand the issue now. If others are present and that student says they do not need an explanation anymore I will usually say something along the lines of "Great! However, if others are having issues with this topic too I'd better go over the information just in case everyone hasn't made the connection yet."
