Is listening really passive?
I think this is a very important topic indeed - and there are various issues underpinning this topic.
One point is raised as to whether it is a self-fulfilling scenario when, as teachers, we perceive that learners can only sit and listen for a short time.
This is not my experience with any age of learner - but it is an issue which needs to be addressed frequently in my field as over and again early years and infant teachers have been told by 'an advisor' that young children have very short attention spans.
Not so - but if you only ever speak to littlies for a short time, then that is their only experience and you have potentially created inattentive children who ultimately may not be able to sustain their concentration for long - but as a consequence of the mindset and behaviours of the teacher - not as a natural state of affairs.
http://www.learningspy.co.uk/learning/e ... ve-active/
David says:
Another issue raised is the style in which the teacher talks to the learners and engages the learning during the 'talking' period.A few months ago I was working with a group of middle leaders in a school and explain my passion for reclaiming and improving ‘teacher talk’ from the dustbin of pedagogy. I was in full flow extolling the virtues of a finely wrought explanation when one subject leader stopped me say, “That’s all very well, but our kids just can’t pay attention for more than 5 to 10 minutes.”
To say I was flabbergasted would be something of an understatement. I was so surprised I wasn’t quite sure what to say in response and muttered something pathetic about agreeing to disagree. But it’s continued to reverberate and has built up something of a head of steam.
Certainly, we cannot consider the process of 'talking' to learners with a broad brushstroke as one teacher's style will be very different from the next teacher's.
A number of important underpinning issues are raised in David Didau's posting - and the readers' subsequent comments - so do check out the link above.