Learning by Doing: Section 4.2

4.2 Increasing awareness of experience

4.2.1 Log books

4.2.2 Listening exercises

4.2.3 Questions

4.2.4 Increasing awareness of feelings

4.2.5 Silent demonstrations

4.2.1 Log books

Log books are used quite commonly in laboratory work; they are for recording what is going on in experiments, as it happens, for subsequent analysis and interpretation. Log books are also sometimes used in art and design and architecture courses where it is important that fleeting emotional responses to draft ideas and plans, rough sketches and the like are not lost, but are collected to help subsequent development of the ideas. Such jottings are especially useful in discussions with teachers and to aid reflection. Log books are distinct from portfolios, which are more collections of work in progress, and from diaries, which are more for the subsequent reflection and analysis of experience. At its best, the process of keeping a log heightens and focusses experience.

4.2.2 Listening exercises

Many experiences involve listening: listening to instructions or demonstrations, or listening to others in a certain situation, for example a trainee teacher listening to the way an experienced teacher handles questions from a class. There are simple exercises which can be run to improve learners' attentiveness and ability to respond to and recall what others say.

In the example of a listening exercise below the focus is on active listening: listening in a way which helps the speaker. Listening in this way requires great attentiveness as well as other skills. This example is intended to illustrate the way such an exercise can run and the type of handout which can be used. The model of listening embodied in this material is not meant to be prescriptive.

Listening exercise

Stage 1 3 minutes	Working alone Students should think back to a situation when they were trying to tell someone something, or to talk through a problem, and the other person was not listening or was doing other things which annoyed them or got in the way of what they were trying to say. The students should try writing down what the things were which the listener was doing which they'd rather they hadn't done.
Stage 2 12 minutes	In pairs Students should tell their "story" to their group of four. One of the four should make notes of all the things people do when they are not listening properly or effectively.
Stage 3 15 minutes	Whole group plenary The tutor should list the points on the board, from each group in turn, about what listeners do wrong in listening, then hand out the list below of characteristics of effective and ineffective listening and discuss in the light of points groups have already raised.
30 minutes	Stages 1-3 ensure that participants start from their own experience, but they can be omitted and a briefer exercise started from stage 4.
Stage 4 5 minutes	In groups of three The tutor should instruct one of the three to tell one of the others about a difficulty or problem in their life at the moment (e.g. whether to move house, which course to take next, whether to change their car, problems with their parents or whatever). The third student should use the handout as an observation checklist and watch how the listener listens and make notes under each of the headings. The groups of three should be stopped after five minutes.
Stage 5 5 minutes	In groups of three The observer should tell the listener what he or she saw and noted down. Then the person talking should tell the listener how he or she found the listener. Finally the listener should have a chance to report on how easy or difficult the listening was, referring to the categories on the checklist.
	Stages 4 and 5 should be repeated so that all three in each group gain experience of active listening (30 minutes in all)
Stage 6 30 minutes	Whole group plenary The whole class should discuss the experience of listening, and being listened to, in an active way in the groups. The session should finish off with a "round" in which each person in turn says which of the listening techniques was most effective and worth using in future.
60 minutes	(or 90 minutes including stages 1-3)

Ineffective Listening
Effective Listening

Non-verbal behaviour

Listener looks bored, uninterested or judgemental; avoids eye contact; displays distracting mannerisms (doodles, plays with paper clip, etc.) Listener maintains positive posture; avoids distracting mannerisms; keeps attention focussed on speaker; maintains eye contact; nods and smiles when appropriate

Focus of attention

Listener shifts focus of attention to himself / herself "When something like that happens to me, I ... " Listener keeps focus of comments on the speaker: "When that happened, what did you do?"

Acceptance

Listener fails to accept speaker's ideas and feelings: "I think it would have been better to ... " Listener accepts ideas and feelings "That's an interesting idea; can you say more about it?"

Empathy

Listener fails to empathise: "I don't see why you felt that" Listener empathises "So when that happened, you felt angry."

Probing

Listener fails to probe into an area, to follow up on an idea or feeling. Listener probes in a helpful way; "Could you tell me more about what led you to feel that way?" and follows up: "You said that ... "

Paraphrasing

Listener fails to check by restating in own words important statements made by the speaker Listener paraphrases at an appropriate time to check understanding

Summarising

Listener fails to summarise Listener summarises progress of the conversation from time to time

Advising

Listener narrows the range of suggesting a 'correct' course of action Listener widens the range of ideas by suggesting a number of alternatives

4.2.3 Questions

Some aspects of experiences are puzzling (e.g."Why ever did they do that?") and it is often not possible to get immediate solutions to these puzzles. Puzzles and questions which arise can distract learners from their immediate experience. However, they can be invaluable afterwards to help reflection and to link the experience to concepts and generalisations. It can be helpful to have a note pad to hand and quickly write down the questions that arise so that they are cleared out of the way and do not interfere with attention. Also, if only questions are allowed to be written down, attention can be directed to puzzling, anomalous or incomprehensible aspects of the experience, should this be useful, and these questions used as a basis for reflection on these aspects afterwards.

4.2.4 Increasing awareness of feelings: ground rules for groups

Groups often behave in ways which have the effect of avoiding the expression of strong feelings or denying that they exist. Some simple 'ground rules' can dramatically affect the ways groups operate so that individuals' feelings are expressed and become a legitimate focus for the group's attention. Individuals become more aware of their own feelings and learn to respond to these feelings and deal with them more appropriately. They also become more aware of others' feelings.

Ground rules for groups:

1	Make "I" statements instead of neutral or general statements. Instead of "We ought to move on" say: "I'd like to move on".
2	Own feelings. Instead of just being angry and covering this up, own the feeling and say: "I feel angry".
3	Avoid blaming others for your feelings. Instead of saying: "You make me angry, doing that" say: "When you do that I feel angry".
4	Don't speak for others, especially not for their feelings. Instead of saying: "We are all bored with this" say: "I feel bored with this. How do you feel?"
5	Avoid judgements of situations or of others. Instead of saying: "This is boring" say: "I feel bored with this". Instead of saying: "You are wrong" say: "I disagree with you".

4.2.5 Silent demonstrations

It is sometimes important for learners to observe an expert performing a task before gaining experience of performing the task themselves. But getting learners to really pay attention during a demonstration can often be a problem. Paradoxically, the usual 'voice-over' commentary during demonstrations, which is intended to direct learners' attention towards key actions or features of the demonstration, can have the opposite effect. Hearing a full description of what is going on, learners don't bother to observe carefully. ( On aircraft do you watch the demonstration of how to use a life jacket when you can hear the recorded commentary over the public address system?)

You may have noticed, whilst listening to the radio, the phenomenon of increased attention being achieved through reducing the amount of information available. For example, radio plays or wildlife documentaries can hold the attention and increase an active awareness of the experience in a way which television often fails to do. Television wildlife documentaries with voice-overs added as an afterthought, in particular, seem to shift the mind into neutral.

One way to heighten attention and make observation more acute, therefore, is to make it more demanding. An effective way to do this is to use a silent demonstration and follow it with reflection on what was observed. For example, medical students could be told:

"I am going to suture this wound. I want you to watch carefully. When I have finished I am going to ask you for a full description of what I did. While you are watching and making mental notes, I'd also like you to think about why I used the materials and instruments I did and why I used them in the way I did. I shan't say anything or point out what I am doing, so you will have to watch carefully."

This clinical teacher is also using questions (see Section 4.2.3) and could have added an observation checklist (see Section 4.1.4). If what is being observed is potentially complex and confusing, the task of watching a silent demonstration can be divided between learners: for example one medical student could have been asked to note the sequence of actions, another the instruments used, and so on.

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Created by Claire Andrew
Page created 10 January 2001