A New Year and a New Resolution

To finally understand the significance of metacognition as an important cog in the dynamic of learning. And although you’re a little late to the Party, why not ease yourself in gently…

The 6^th film in our Dynamic Learning Series covers an area of learning frequently neglected by students, namely the art of Active Listening.

But why, you may be thinking, do students need to understand how to listen when the majority of them – you know who you are – spend a great deal of their school / college time in what scientists call “listening situations”?

And the answer is, of course, deceptively simple: because even though we’re physically present in the classroom we don’t always mentally engage with what we’re hearing. Information either passes passively from teacher to student to page or it’s never even recorded because it simply hasn’t been heard.

Either way, I think you’d agree if you were listening, it means we frequently miss a lot of important information.

And if we’re not taking something in, we can’t recall it when we really need it. Which, while it’s not rocket science, is a bit of a downer when it comes to exams.

However, as you probably secretly suspected, it’s actually not that difficult to become a more active listener.

You just haven’t been shown how.

So in this short film we show you three simple strategies to improve your listening and make you better learners:

• Pre-learning. Or how to prepare in advance for classes to enhance your ability to listen.

• Focus. Or some simple things you can do when you’re actually in class to actively listen.

• Over-learning. Or the idea of writing simple summaries and reviews of what you’ve just learnt in class.

As I suggested, Active Listening isn’t difficult.

All it takes is a little bit of preparation and application.