Listening within the framework of Critical World Citizenship concerns listening with the intention of learning, reflecting, and listening to voices that are otherwise left unheard. Rather than just being a recipient of information, the student will learn how to actively engage with others, and to create meaningful moments of reflection, engagement, and interaction. This way of listening is not only important in the classroom and in communication with other students, but probably even more so in the broader society. Learning how to listen well will help the students in building bridges and establish connections with people from different cultural and national backgrounds. This includes listening to voices and narratives that would otherwise go unheard. At the same time, listening critically will help students unpack implicit meaning and assumptions and allows for critical reflection and introspection.
Tips & tricks
With these tips & tricks, you can introduce students to the skill in an accessible way.
Changing the seating plan
An easy way to encourage listening in the classroom is by regularly changing the seating plan. Students tend to sit next to their friends in class and take the same seat every class. By changing the seating plan (after a break, or before every lesson), students will sit next to peers they might be less familiar with. This will make them more aware of the different voices present in the classroom and more likely to listen to the voices of students they otherwise would not engage with. The aim is to teach students to listen to all voices and encourage them to gain new perspectives on dilemmas and problems discussed in class as well as reflect on their own perspectives and experiences.
Check-ins
A check-in happens at the beginning of a lesson and is meant to give all students a chance to speak during class, and to make them more comfortable. The teacher will ask everyone in class how they are doing and how they are feeling about the upcoming lesson. This way, students will have a chance to express themselves if they are not feeling well or if something is hindering their performance in class that day. Furthermore, it teaches the students to listen to each other, to take each other seriously, and allow all students the opportunity to speak. If this is done routinely, it will help students to listen to each other and pay attention to other peoples’ knowledge and arguments as well as their experiences and wellbeing. Both are part of becoming a critical world citizen.
Removing tables
During classes in which students are behind their desks and on their laptop, they can quickly disengage and lose interest in their peers. To encourage students to listen to each other, and to make them communicate more easily, it can help to set the tables aside in the classroom. Instead, students will sit in a circle (possibly with laptops or notes on their laps) and talk to each other without the obstruction of tables between them. This will make it more accessible to start a dynamic discussion and engage with each other’s perspectives and arguments as students will be less distracted by their laptops, and thus more inclined to listen to each other.
Teaching activities
With these teaching activities, you can enable students to apply the skill concretely within your educational practice.
Debate
An effective way to train listening in the classroom is by creating a space for debate. This can be an open debate, or a more structured one. By means of an open debate, students can be given the chance to form and express their own opinions/thoughts on certain topics. The students will be encouraged to react to each other, and to respect opinions that are different from their own. A structured debate can have a similar effect, through different means. Rather than expressing their own thoughts, students can be asked to prepare a certain interpretation on a topic. They will not voice their own opinion but engage in the debate with a designated viewpoint. By doing this they will have to explore opinions other than their own to a level where they can defend them. This works especially well when students are asked to explore and defend a viewpoint that critically interrogates students’ own assumptions and positionalities.
Interviews
To practice listening outside of a classroom environment, students can be asked to perform interviews. Ideally, these interviews will take place with people outside of the student’s own social bubble. This will allow the student to get to know and understand the experiences of those that live differently from themselves and will force them to listen critically to what the respondent is explaining and reflect on their own perspectives. Nevertheless, listening is also crucial when interviewing someone from one’s own social circle. Participants can be asked to perform interviews in different ways. To make sure interviews ask of students to also reflect on what they have heard, consider asking students to write a short analysis of what they learned during the interviews and be asked to share this during the class. The goal of such interviews is not to do them perfectly and produce a coherent research project, but instead to make students aware of different experiences, voices, and opinions.
Assessment
With these assignments, you can encourage students to further train and develop the skill.
Opposing viewpoints
A form of assessment that will make participants practice the skill of listening is having them examine opposing viewpoints of a certain problem or academic discussion. The goal is that students understand that people think in very different ways, and that they can learn how to listen to opinions they do not agree with. Students will get familiar with the extreme ends of a debate and will be expected to then position their own opinion within this spectrum. This can be done in the form of a paper, of a presentation, or even in a more creative way, such as writing a manifesto or making a podcast/video.
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Good practices
These examples provide insight into how students have successfully applied the skill in practice.
Interview Analysis (Gender Studies)
This exercise concerns holding an interview with a person from a different background than the students. In pairs, an interview will be prepared in which students should aim to understand the position and life experiences of the person. This interview will then be analysed in a broader academic and social context. Originally, the assignment was connected to Gender Studies, so topics would be gendered experiences and sexuality. However, the assignment can be applied to a broad range of fields.
Eggenberger, A. L. (2021). Active listening skills as predictors of success in community college students. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 45(5), 324-333.
Gustafson, L. P., Short, A. K., & Hamilton, N. W. (2022). Teaching and assessing active listening as foundational skill for lawyers as leaders, counselors, negotiators, and advocates. Santa Clara Law Review, 62(1), 1-42.
Tabieh, A. A., Al-Hileh, M. M., Abu Afifa, H. M., & Abuzagha, H. Y. (2021). The Effect of Using Digital Storytelling on Developing Active Listening and Creative Thinking Skills. European Journal of Educational Research, 10(1), 13-21.