Can we teach effective listening? An exploratory study

Abstract

This paper describes an exploratory study that was conducted with Business School and School of Population Health undergraduates to assess whether we can teach effective listening. Effective listening is conscious listening when the listener hears both verbal and non verbal communication that is being transmitted by the sender. We developed an intervention using open space technology that was administered to both groups of students to explore our research focus. Drawing on our findings, we argue that effective listening can foster transformative learning. However, this requires educators to plan to manage the listening factors/filters that influence effective listening in the same way that they plan to teach content and generic skills to students. Our study provides some empirical understanding of the factors/filters that influence effective listening by students. The study also makes a theoretical and practical contribution to a gap in teaching and learning literature about listening.