Title: Teaching Active Listening in the Classroom
Headings: Active Listening in the Classroom, an Important Motivational Strategy
Active Listening in the Classroom, an Important Motivational Strategy
Active Listening in the Classroom

Content: gaining self-understanding
improving relationships
making people feel understood
making people feel cared for
making learning easier
By using active listening with students, teachers build the relationship of trust and caring that is essential to student motivation. By teaching active listening, teachers help students overcome poor listening habits such as: dwelling on internal distractions
developing a prejudice about the speaker due to an early remark with which the listener disagrees
focusing on the personal characteristics of the speaker or their poor delivery, which prevents understanding
Since these poor listening habits interfere with classroom learning as well as interpersonal communication, learning active listening (specifically, the feedback step) may also improve students' study skills. In the feedback step, the listener summarizes or paraphrases the speaker's literal and implied message. For example, in the following dialogue, Para provides feedback to a student by guessing the student's implied message and then asking for confirmation. Student: I don't like this school as much as my old one. People are not very nice. Para: You are unhappy at this school?