Active Listening

Active listening is an everyday activity that we perform without noticing. We have to listen to class instructions, presentations, and simple things like a movie, song, and parents. Being an active listener is understanding what the other person is trying to convey, putting it on our own words, and never interrupting the speaker. There are other factors that contribute to active listening in our surroundings like background noise or the people around us. Active listening also helps others feel heard and included, it creates a sense of belongingness. 

Engaging in active listening has different effects on different people. I am usually a good listener, but sometimes my mind tends to wander without noticing. Active listening is very important in a learning setting because you will be asked to complete assignments based on what was said. This can be a hard task for people with short attention spans like myself. I definitely have a harder time concentrating when I don’t rest well, this means I will miss important details. 

No matter how much you try to remember everything said in a presentation or meeting, we are likely to miss a detail or two. This is when being in a group can be more effective than working alone, a group can discuss all the details together. Personally, I find it more effective to first discuss in small groups and then share as a class, that way everyone contributes, just like in my first-year seminar class! For example, we all read the same articles and stories, but some people will have a different perspective or understand it differently. If we discuss our ideas as a big group, we can put ourselves in each other’s shoes for different viewpoints.