Essay 1 - Metacomprehension Analogy- Air Traffic Control

 

One of our main goals as an educator is to get our children to think for themselves and to think about their thinking.  When children begin to do this they will be on their way to lifelong learning.  They will question and interpret what they see, hear, and touch and analyze it on a deeper level.  If they have questions they will look for answers and if they have a problem they will look for ways to solve it instead of looking for shortcuts.  When students learn to question and analyze what they learn they will also be able to find inaccuracies and inconsistencies with what they learn instead of just accepting everything they see and hear as being truth.

 

I believe a good analogy for metacomprehension is comparing it to an air traffic controller.  The air traffic controller (ATC) sits up above everything else just like the brain.  They are able to scan everything and able to bring in all of the available information.  The ATC has to process information very quickly or they can cause problems for other people.  As they are analyzing the information they are also sending out information to many people.  These could be people on the ground, other air traffic controllers, or pilots.  They are also receiving verbal information from these people and combining it with what they are seeing.  If a problem arises the ATC must work with others to solve or avert the problem.  If there is too much information coming in and they are not able to process it fast enough or they send out incorrect information then there can be confusion and accidents.

 

The ATC sees the planes on their screen or in the sky or on the ground of the airport.  They see this with their eyes just like a student would see information on a book or board and this is transferred into sensory memory.  Like the students, the ATC quickly forgets this information once more information is processed due to time decay.  For students they must take this sensory information and think about it.  When they think about it they are able to make the information make sense.  An example would be a student reading a book would see a word and they have to identify the letters, think about what the letters sound like, and they have to ask themselves if it makes sense.  They then have to evaluate if the three steps match and if not they need to go back and correct themselves.  This is all done very quickly. 

 

Lucky for travelers, ATCs do turn their sensory memory into short-term memory.  They are able to look away from their screen and scan the sky and still remember the coordinates of other planes.  They are then able to come up with a safe path to relay to the pilot to help them land at their destination safely. It should not be the goal of ATC to commit all of their sensory information to long-term memory.  If they did this they would be constantly confused on whether the information they were using was from yesterday or today or even last month.  This would cause great problems in the travel industry.   Students also turn sensory memory into short term memory.  Students must be able to remember and think about the words that they have read until the end of the sentence.  They must think about the words and evaluate if the sentence makes sense.  If a student forgot each word the second they were not looking at it then reading and learning would be impossible.  Unless there are connections made with this information the student will quickly begin to forget the information.

 

ATCs have had to commit a lot of information to their long-term memory.  They have usually been in the military or have gone through a lengthy schooling process.  They need to understand complex math and physics skills.  All of these skills help them to judge speed, weather, distance, etc.  These advanced skill sets allow them to help thousands of people travel safely through the air.  If there is a problem they have to be able too think of all these concepts while talking to the pilot and helping them find a safe solution.  If ATCs only had sensory and short-term memory they would only be able to direct pilots by what they were seeing and not by what they truly know.  ATCs have helped air travel to be one of the safest modes of transportation and flying today is even safer then driving.  As a frequent flyer this is very reassuring.   Students need to be able to use long-term memory to analyze and think about what they are learning.  They learn to question and to think processes through instead of just doing them.  In the Mayer text it describes a case where students in third and sixth grade were told that there were inaccuracies in an article.  The sixth graders were able to find the problems at a much higher rate then the third graders.  This shows that they were thinking about what they were reading a much higher level then the third graders.  This study shows that students probably start using metacomprehension/cognition closer to the age of ten to eleven.  I think it is really interesting to see students really start to question things.  As a seventh grade teacher my students are at the perfect age to really start thinking for themselves and also to start thinking about their learning processes (Mayer 103). 

 

This analogy does have several weaknesses.  One is the comparison of an ATC to a student.  If an ATC makes a mistake in their thinking process it can be catastrophic to many people.  At best their mistake can be corrected by the pilot or another ATC.  At worst their mistake could end with two planes colliding in the air.  If a student on the other hand makes a mistake while reading or misunderstands a word it will not be catastrophic.  It may make them misunderstand what they are reading, but shouldn’t have life altering consequences.  Another weakness is reading/learning is a lifelong skill that everyone needs to use.  Each one of us reads, analyses, and questions things that we see everyday.  These things may keep us from going down a one-way street or help us to put the correct ingredients in a recipe.  If something doesn’t look right or sound right we will question it and see if there is a better solution or if something else makes more sense.  The skill set that an ATC has is very important to their job, but is not used by everyone.  I don’t think there are a lot of people who use altitude, velocity, etc. in their day to day lives.  These ATC use their skills at work, but do not use them in the rest of their life.  They do constantly use other skills like questioning and analysis in their day to day life.

 

January 30, 2008. Cognition. Retrieved February 2, 2008, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition

January 16, 2008. Cognitive Psychology. Retrieved February 2, 2008, from Wikipedia Web site:                 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_psychology 

Mayer, Richard E. (2003). Learning and Instruction. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson        Education, Inc . pg. 14-19 and 103.

Essay 2 - Misconceptions

 

I am currently teaching my fourth year of 7th Grade Geography.  When I graduated college I had a teaching degree in history, but had only taken a few sub-par Geography classes.  My first year of teaching I had many misconceptions about the world, geography, and teaching in general.  I had no ideas what concepts I was going to teach let alone the concepts my students would struggle with.  As I have progressed as a teacher I can predict where my students will struggle and how I can help them to avoid these struggles.

 

Teaching about Africa is one of my favorite aspects of Geography.  I love to teach it because the students have so many misconceptions about what Africa is like.  When asked to brainstorm words that come to mind when they think of Africa I get responses like: desert, hot, poor, lions, safaris, mud houses, etc.  I love that the students have these pre-conceived misconceptions because it makes my job teaching that much more fun and meaningful. 

 

Instructional Plan - This plan was done before reading the book chapters.  I will reformulate my lesson plan at the bottom of my essay showing what I learned from the chapters.

I. Students will write down everything they think of when they hear the word Africa.  We will discuss these responses as a whole class.

II. PowerPoint - Show the students different pictures from Africa that show how diverse it is.  This way the students see that Africa has snow, plains, skyscrapers, developed cities, rainforests, etc.

III. Have students look in the textbook for other ways that Africa is not just desert.  Discuss these as a class.

 

I have had quite a bit of success teaching the lesson this way in the past.  Now I will look at my lesson to see how I incorporate or do not incorporate strategies from Chapters 8 and 10. 

 

Discover learning is definitely the way I would classify how I teach on most days specifically guided and expository discovery.  I try to have the students solve real world problems that have to do with Geography.  When I was in my last year of undergrad I had a teacher who was really into Pure Discovery.  He thought that our curriculums were way to rigid and students needed to discover everything on their own for it to be meaningful.  I thought this was a very interesting yet unrealistic approach.  The chart on page 289 proves that this approach does not work as well as the other two discovery approaches.  This type of learning may work better the older the students get, but I think the students need some background information if a teacher really wants them to be successful and retain the information.

 

 I feel my above instructional plan uses mostly expository discovery.  It is probably too teacher led and doesn’t have a lot of students learning done on their own.

 

When reading through the Inductive Methods of teaching I do not feel it applies very much to geography education.  Geography is a subject where we don’t have to teach as many new concepts as in a subject like math.  The predict-observe-explain (POE) method was very interesting and may be something I adapt into future lesson plans.  It is similar to the photo analysis activity I use in which students are given a picture and they have to analyze it and see what they can learn from it.  I then go back and explain what is going on in the picture and they make corrections to what they had guessed.  I am definitely interested in trying it out.  I think this is the method that is being used in the balloon experiment in class.  We haven’t even done the experiment, but I have been thinking about possible outcomes.

 

Page 408 discusses the problem of process versus product.  This is a concept that I have struggled with in my classroom.  I’m sure math teachers struggle with it even more.  One of my goals in geography is to help my students learn to think for themselves.  Most of the time they feel there is only one right answer or that they can only get to the answer in one way.  I try and incorporate a lot of group work and brainstorming in my classroom to get children to think.  I loved reading about the Productive Thinking Program on pages 413-417.  It was really a neat idea on how to teach children problem solving.  As the book states the program seemed to work, but that there were too many variables to prove its success (high motivation and whether or not the skills were transferable to real life).  This is a question I have when I have my students do problem solving - is it actually going to be transferable to real life.

 

After reading the chapters I have made changes to my instructional plan.

 

I. Students will write down everything they think of when they think of Africa and discuss as a class.

II. PowerPoint - I show the students 10 pictures and ask them to write down the continent they think the pictures are from (the secret is they are all from Africa).  Examples of pictures - Snowy peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro, The beauty of Cape Town, South Africa, Rainforest, the Serengeti Plains, Skyscrapers in Kenya,  etc. The kids all have guesses of where the pictures are from, but most of them are wrong.  All of the pictures I show are from Africa and the kids begin to realize how diverse Africa really is and it is not the desert filled area they thought it once was..

III. Computer Lab - After this introduction I have the students go down to the computer lab and do some introductory research about Africa.  The overall goal is for them to show the diversity that Africa has to offer.  They get to use www.worldbookonline.com  to search for this diversity.  They are looking for pictures or facts.

IV. The next day the students will get into groups and put all of their information onto a small poster board to show to the class.  We will then discuss each group’s findings.  One alteration that could be made here is having the students place their pictures and facts into a PowerPoint or PhotoStory.

 

I know feel my lesson is more guided discovery and less expository.  They need  I as the teacher have the intended outcome I want the students to get to, but I help them find that answer.  If I wanted the students to do this activity from a pure discovery method I think it would take an extended amount of time.  If I did it in an expository method it would be very quick and to the point, but I don’t think the students would enjoy the lesson as much and the more they enjoy it I think the more they retain.

 

I also think it gives the students an opportunity to use more problem solving skills.  They need to figure out ways to show the diversity of Africa.  They can do this by showing animals, architecture, biomes, urban areas, rural areas, etc.  They have lots of opportunities to think for themselves and come up with different answers yet all be correct.

 

This lesson is also much improved because it uses technology.  I am using PowerPoint and the internet to capture the student’s interest.

 

Mayer, Richard E. (2003). Learning and Instruction. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson    Education, Inc .

 

Essay 3 - Introduction - Comparing and Contrasting two websites that teach cultural diffusion

I am currently teaching 7th Grade Geography so I looked for a topic that would work well in my classroom.  I love teaching about different cultures so I thought a good topic would be cultural diffusion.  After a lot of searching (apparently National Geographic has a monopoly on everything Geography because I could only find lessons that they made).  Both websites are set up as lesson plans so I will evaluate how effective the plans are for a teacher to read and implement, but I will also discuss how effective it would be for a student to follow and complete.  I will rate them on fluency, activation of schema, structure,   The two websites/lesson plans I used are as follows:

http://mconn.doe.state.la.us/lessonplans.php?task=LP_view&lesson_id=140&dispPage=20  - Referred to as Louisiana in the text

 http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/education/ideas58/58made.html - Referred to as N.G. in the text

 How do the websites use signaling?

 Both websites do a very good job of signaling to the reader what is coming.  The National Geographic (N.G.) lesson probably does the best job.  The website starts off by giving us a preview of the main ideas. This makes it very easy for the teacher to see if the lesson plan will work for them or not.   It is a very detailed preview.  The Louisiana lesson plan also gives an overview to the reader, but it was not as detailed.  Each website gives very good headings to allow readers to know what each section is going to outline.

 How do the websites use fluency?

 Fluency is measured by phrasing, rate (speed), expression, and accuracy.  When analyzing the website that encourages fluency in its readers the Louisiana lesson is far superior.  This website is bulleted and broken down into easy to read passages.  The N.G. website is in paragraph form slowing down the reader.  When I have students read passages in class I always try to find ones that do not have a lot of words in a small space.  I have learned that students, especially special education students, struggle with small font.  As for the lessons that each website provides I feel that the Louisiana website is also superior when it comes to encouraging students to read fluently.  The lesson uses Inspiration, Maps, and Graphics.  These all allow students to read at a fairly high rate and also allow them to read more accurately.  The Louisiana website also offers some tips on how to teach to the below grade level reader-writer.  These tips will allow teachers to help all students to become successful.  It also gives the teacher advice on how to help physically-impaired students.

  As with their webpage the N.G. lesson requires students to read an article about a girl getting up and talking about all of the products she uses throughout the day that come from other countries.   Once again the font is small and very compact.  I am planning on using this article in my classroom, but I would definitely increase the font and double space the article allowing my students to be more successful.

How do the websites activate schema?

 Activating schema (prior knowledge) is another important process in education.  Good teachers usually try to do this at the start of every lesson using some sort of hook to get the students attention and also to think about what they know about the topic.  The N.G. lesson does this right away.  They ask students to think about things like orange juice, umbrellas, etc.  These are all things that students will be familiar with and that will help to increase their interest.  The website also does a good job in the article (Libby’s Day - Traveling through her day and discussing all of the things she uses from foreign countries) by talking about all the things we use and how they come from other countries.  Since the students also use these products it increases the importance of the lesson.  The lesson plan also asks students to list things that our culture invented and also list things that we get from other cultures.  This immediately gets the students thinking about objects that they are very familiar with.

 The Louisiana website does an o.k.  job at activating schema.  It talks about Christopher Columbus at the beginning of the lesson, but then goes right into the Columbian Exchange.  This is a topic that most students would not be very familiar with.  I also do not believe that it does a very good job explaining what the Columbian Exchange is.  However, it does do well at having the students label the continents (which they should already know) and also have them label which products originated from each continent.   Because the students are familiar with the products and the continents it does allow them to see that things have and continue to travel between different areas of the world.  By activating this prior knowledge the students will be able to be successful in the lesson.  As for teachers both websites would do a good job at activating schema.  They refer to teaching/learning standards that all teachers should be familiar with.  They also give benchmarks and expectations that teachers would have already learned.

 How do the websites use structure  to help students?

 Structure is another important aspect of reading comprehension.  Both websites are set up in a classification format (Mayer 331).  Each breaks down topics into different categories and sub-categories.  When we look at the way the lesson is presented to the students I feel the Louisiana website is much better.  The students create webs using Inspiration Software.  I am a big proponent of having students make webs to aid in their learning because this format allows students to see everything they have learned in an easy to read format.  Webs are also useful as a review tool at the end of a chapter or unit.

 How do the websites make students infer?

 The N.G. handout does not have any activities that would require students to infer.  The activity could be done by students skimming the article for country names and filling in the map.  The Louisiana lesson does not actively encourage inferring, but gives the opportunity for teachers to foster this through student research. 

 Do the websites allow students to use questioning?

 Neither lesson plan encourages students to ask questions about what they think, feel, or what they still wonder about the topic.  This topic should elicit many questions from the students which would give teachers and students a great opportunity for class/group discussions and further research.

The N.G. lesson encourages teachers to ask students higher level questions throughout the activity which would be beneficial to the students learning. 

 Both websites are beneficial resources to teachers who are teaching about cultural diffusion.  They both are easy to navigate and have well thought out lesson plans that allow students to be successful.

 The end product of the Louisiana website is for the students to produce a map and give an oral presentation.  Both of these activities require the students to read and synthesize information.  The end product of the N.G. website is for the students to make a list of examples they learned about cultural diffusion and also list the pros and cons of cultural diffusion.  The pros and cons of cultural diffusion is a high level question that should require students to evaluate the value of what they learned.

 References

 Directions in Geography: A Guide for Teachers, National Geographic Society, 1992.

Retrieved on February 11, 2008 from the National Geographic Website.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/education/ideas58/58made.html

 2002.  Making Connections.  Retrieved February 11, 2008.  The Louisiana State Educational Standards Website.   http://mconn.doe.state.la.us/lessonplans.php?task=LP_view&lesson_id=140&dispPage=20 -

 Mayer, Richard E. (2003). Learning and Instruction. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson    Education, Inc .

February 10, 2008.  The Psychology of Reading. Retrieved February 11, 2008 from Wiked.

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/SKEP_The_psychology_of_reading_to_learn

 

Essay 4 - Assertive Discipline and Punishment


I first heard of assertive discipline in an undergraduate level educational psychology class.  I thought it was the way education was supposed to be.  The kids know the rules, they do everything you say, and the parents and administrators back you up one hundred percent.  Sounds like the most wonderful thing in the world.

Lee and Marlene Canter came up with assertive discipline because they felt teachers were losing control of their classrooms.  The Canter’s even go as far to say, “That as a teacher it is your responsibility to influence your students to behave (SKEP Rules and Consequences).”  They also believed that children are not motivated to behave in school and must be taught how (SKEP Rules and Consequences).  I feel that the Canters got most of assertive discipline correct.  I think students need to know the expectations and what will happen if they don’t follow the rules.  One of the most important things I learned in my teacher training was to post my expectations of the students and the consequences.  I was also taught that you need to keep the rules short and to the point.  You can’t expect kids to remember 37 rules in your classroom.

I find in my classroom that the best way to get even the worst behaving students to behave is to have lessons that are not only educational, but relevant to students.  On days when I have a lesson plan that may not be the best the students become restless and behavior issues creep up.  On days that I have really good lesson plans the students are engaged and on perfect behavior.  Another thing I believe helps is to have very structured lessons.  This plays into assertive discipline because students know what to expect when they are in the classroom.

One disagreement I have with assertive discipline is that there doesn’t always need to be a consequence for the misbehavior.  I feel that if you can stop the behavior and get the students back on task you don’t always need a consequence.  I also don’t like the way that assertive discipline calls students out in front of their peers.  I find that when I discipline a student in front of the class the rest of the kids either shut down or the misbehaving student just increases the negative behavior.  I think most discipline should be done in a one on one situation.

To explain assertive discipline in the adult world I will use the example of team meetings amongst teachers.  This year I had the unfortunate experience of being the “president” of our seventh grade team for our daily meetings.  I took over halfway through the year.  First of all I get along with everyone on my team and like them all personally.  One problem I had in leading the team was that we didn’t have a set of team rules.  Four team teachers would bring in their computers and check email, grade their homework or tests, or talk about the drama they had going on in their personal lives or at school.  None of these actually accomplished the purpose of our team.  The purpose of our team is to address student concerns, collaborate on assignments, discuss our schedules to make sure we aren’t overloading students, plan field trips, etc.

After several weeks I decided to begin sending out an agenda of what we were to discuss for team.  I always tried to include a joke or something to make the email light-hearted.  This was a hint that we needed to try and stay more focused.  The hint was taken and team meetings have been a little bit more on topic and we have accomplished more.  I think setting the expectation helped.  The next step in improving team was to make a set of rules.  We sat down as a team and discussed what we expected people to do when they were in team.  We decided that grading should not take place in a team meeting.  We also decided that the only person who should have a computer was the team secretary.  Having only one person bring a computer has definitely cut down on the distractions.  One thing we did not add was an outlined set of consequences.  I am not sure that a team of teachers needs to have consequences when the rules are broken.  We are lenient and if we have a really hectic week we can bend the rules a little bit.

I feel that my team has been working much better together now that we have a set of rules.  We are able to have more focused meetings.  We are also able to stay much more focused on the tasks at hand.

Another instance where assertive discipline can be analyzed is at sporting events.  I will compare assertive discipline at the high school level and at the collegiate / professional level. 

There are fewer rules at professional and collegiate events and behavior is usually a lot rowdier then at the high school level even though I have seen adults act badly at high school events.  There are few things besides religion and politics that can get people more upset than their athletic team.  If it were not for the threat of discipline I feel sporting events would be even more chaotic and dangerous for the everyday fan.  I’m not sure that I have been to one professional/college athletic event where someone didn’t get kicked out or need to be kicked out.  I feel that having fewer rules, and maybe alcohol, causes people to push the limits of what is accepted by society.  People throw things and yell profanity at players and the officials.  Even if there are small children around it doesn’t seem to stop them.  One thing that usually does stop them is when they receive a warning from an usher.  Once they realize that there are consequences to their actions and they understand the rules they usually calm down.  If not they know the next consequence is removal from the stadium.  This seems to keep people in line.  I also feel that in professional and collegiate sporting events people do not really police each other to a great extent.  I think most of the time people don’t want to get involved to quiet somebody down and instead will allow the ushers to do so.

At the high school level there are more rules and this usually keeps people from getting out of hand.  First of all most of the spectators are students and they know that if they misbehave they will not only be kicked out of the game they will have a consequence at school.  Adults also seem to be on better behavior because they know that if there is a problem they can be removed from the rest of that season’s or year’s sporting events.  By having more strict rules and expectations it seems people are better behaved.  I feel that in high school sporting events people are more likely to try to discipline each other than allow an umpire or administrator to discipline the troublemakers.

Assertive discipline is a form of discipline that should be used in the classroom and in everyday life.  People and students need to be aware of the rules, expectations, and consequences in different situations.  If a person is aware of the rules and breaks them then there is no room for arguing or problems.  You know that if you break a rule you have a consequence and that is the end of the discussion.  I feel in the classroom that this is not the only discipline system you should have, but should be one of many different systems you use in your everyday classroom.

(March 27, 2008). Assertive Discipline.  Retrieved March 27, 2008, from http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Assertive_discipline

Sample Discipline Plan for Elementary Students.  Retrieved March 27, 2008 from http://ctercms.ed.uiuc.edu/file.php/13/AssertiveDiscPlan.jpg

(March 25, 2008). SKEP Rules and Consequences.  Retrieved March 27, 2008, from http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/SKEP_Rules_and_consequences_are_used_to_shape_student_actions 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Essay 5 - Active Listening

“If you want to know how to make people shun you and laugh at you behind your back and even despise you, here is the recipe: Never listen to anyone for long. Talk incessantly about yourself. If you have an idea while the other person is talking, don't wait for him or her to finish: bust right in and interrupt in the middle of a sentence.” Dale Carnegie

The Self Transformation Series states that there are three types of listening:  these are hearing, listening to the meaning, and listening to the meaning and other non-verbal cues (Active Learning 1995). As a classroom teacher I must admit that I do not always actively listen to my students.  I do sometimes just hear them and not really listen for meaning.  Even though I see myself as a caring teacher I catch myself on a daily basis not listening to what students have to say. I get into a rut where I use the excuse that I am too busy or have too many things going on in my life to listen to every student and this leads me into justifying this behavior.  I do feel that as teachers, and this is something I am working on, we need to leave our problems from the outside world outside of school, and focus all our attention during the school day on our students.  For a lot of our students it is the only time during the day that someone will listen to them and show interest in their lives.  By not actively listening to students you are showing them that they are not important enough to hold your time or attention.  This can be very devastating to students.  If a teacher wants their students to learn throughout the year they need to make a connection with their students and if students think we don’t care about them because we don’t listen they are apt to shutdown and accomplish very little (Kelley 2008).

Academic research has shown that students do not participate in active listening in the classroom because they are never taught this skill.  Armstrong, an education researcher, states, “It is paradoxical that listening is the easiest way to learn but the hardest study skill to master”.  The great businessman Lee Iacocca goes as far as saying,  “listening is the single skill that can turn a mediocre company and a good company (Graves and Loaiza 12-13).  Research into active listening also finds that to be a great leader you need to be able to listen to people. 

To try and improve my active listening skills with my students I have taken several steps over the last few years.  The first step I take is when a student comes up to me I stop what I am doing and look right at them.  In the past I have caught myself grading a paper or looking at the textbook and not really paying attention to what the student was saying.  This gave the student the impression that they were not important enough for me to stop what I was doing.  I also try to make it clear to the student that they have 100% of my attention.  This makes them feel more valued as a student.  I have also started talking to students more who have a troubled home life.  As mentioned above this may be the only time during the day that someone pays attention to these students.  I also coach junior high track and I have about 95 sixth, seventh and eight grade boys on my track team.  During track I get hundreds of questions a day and I get into the habit of saying maybe or we will see to all of them.  Even though I do attempt to actively listen to every question this is one situation where I do not know if I will ever be able to be a fully active listener. 

Another way that active listening should be used in the classroom is for conflict mediation.  Conflict mediation requires active listening.  The participants talk and the mediator summarize each person’s side.  They can also ask questions and must talk to come up with a solution that each must accept.  This works very well in an education setting.

How do you teach students to actively listen to you and to each other?

When teachers teach their students good active listening skills the students will not only do a better job at learning they will also be learning skills that will help them throughout a lifetime.  They will be able to carry on more meaningful conversations, make people feel more important and understood, and be able to increase the number of meaningful relationships they will have (Kelley 2008).

I think students learn best when they have a good example to model.  If teachers want their students to be active listeners then they need to model this in the school setting.  The teachers should actively listen to other teachers, administrators, parents, and students.  By setting this example you can show the students how to listen to each other.  One way I attempt to teach students to be active listeners in group work.  I try and set up each group project so the students do some individual work, but then come back to the group as a whole.  This way they have to listen to each others ideas, brainstorm new ideas, and collaborate to choose which solution is the best answer to their problem.

The Self Transformation Guide provides these seven steps to becoming a more active listener: 

1. Look at the person, and suspend other things you are doing.
2. Listen not merely to the words, but the feeling content.
3. Be sincerely interested in what the other person is talking about.
4. Restate what the person said.
5. Ask clarification questions once in a while.
6. Be aware of your own feelings and strong opinions.
7. If you have to state your views, say them only after you have listened (Active Listening 1995)

Another way to improve active listening skills in students is to have them practice giving feedback.  When someone is talking you should give them feedback to what they are saying to make sure you understand the factual or emotional aspects of the conversation.  The way you could use this in the classroom is to have the students summarize what you said after an important fact or piece of information is given.    When having a conversation with someone about a problem they may be having it is good to ask questions or summarize their statements so they know you care and understand about their problem (Kelley 2008).

Are there situations when it shouldn't be used?

I do not think there are many situations where active listening should not be used in an academic setting.  I also do not see many classroom management plans that minimize the importance of active listening.  I think there are teachers who do not give students freedoms and control their classroom with an iron hand, but I would think that even these teachers listen to their students.  Most of the classroom management systems we have discussed this year I feel try to move teachers to a more student centered approach and these maximize the importance of active listening.

Refrerence List

Active Listening.  The Self Transformation Series No. 13.  Retrieved on April 13, 2008 from the Peace Center -   http://theosophy.ph/trans_13.htm 

Conflict Research Consortium (1998).  Retrieved April 13, 2008, from The International Online Training Program:   http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/treatment/activel.htm .  Active Listening.

Graves, Jennifer and Karyn Loaiza (1999).  Eric Theses - St. Xavier University and Skylight Training and Publishing.  Retrieved April 13, 2008 from http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/15/d9/ec.pdf 1999    Improving Student Listening Skills Across the Curriculum.

Kelley, Melissa (2008). Active Listening for the classroom.  Retrieved on April 13, 2008 from http://712educators.about.com/cs/activelistening/a/activelistening.htm