Learning to Listen and Listening to Learn
Empowering Visible CLARITY
- John Hattie - The University of Melbourne, Australia
- Lyn Sharratt - University of Toronto, Canada
Foreword by John Malloy, Epilogue by Pak Tee Ng, A co-publication with ACEL
Listening—the most underrated skill in education
Listening—the process of actively receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken or non-verbal messages—is essential for teaching and learning. How can we check for understanding and ensure that students’ contributions are heard and understood by peers and teachers?
In Learning to Listen and Listening to Learn, bestselling authors and internationally respected educators John Hattie and Lyn Sharratt demonstrate how listening can foster positive relationships, trust, and understanding while enhancing student learning. With a wealth of research to guide educators through the process of infusing active, sensitive, and empathetic listening skills into the classroom and school culture, this important guide includes:
- The Visible CLARITY 5-Ear Listening Model
- Reflection prompts and mantras to help reinforce key learnings from each chapter
- Guidance on how to assess and enhance leader, teacher, and student listening skills
When we value every student's voice, we create an inclusive environment that encourages diverse perspectives, fosters equity, and develops accurate listening, empowering students to articulate their thoughts and enhancing skills they will use for their lifetimes.
"I am thrilled that, finally, listening came into the focus of educators and researchers in education and teaching. Listening is probably the most underrated skill in educational settings. Although it is the most required skill per (school) day in many different ways, it is the skill to which the least amount of instruction time has traditionally been dedicated. I found it impressive, how the text explores the different aspects and purposes of listening and how a variety of concrete and practical instructional strategies and procedures are included to demonstrate how listening instruction can be put into the classroom practice. Listening is so much more than hearing as illustrated in the five-ear listening model. This is an extremely important work to bring listening into the classroom and to support teachers to develop and to teach listening skills! To combine the VL approach with issues of listening instruction is meaningful."
"Effective listening skills are essential for learning and teaching. Here the authors use research to guide educators through the process of infusing active listening into the classroom and school culture."
"Listen, learn, lead. Building empowering relationships require presence, curiosity, and listening well. What immediately captures attention is the emphasis on enabling improvement and growth through the definition and exploration of accurate listening, which primes and demands something different. It goes a step further. The powerhouse perspectives of our admired education luminaries, Hattie and Sharratt, are deep and rich in global research, expertise, and practice. Success is illuminated by integrating a systems approach to ensuring accurate listening is understood, modeled, and practiced from the classroom to the center. Importantly, the efficacy of this process cannot be in the absence of the heart, where one feels truly heard and understood.
Through the lens and incredible expertise of the authors, the thoughtfully curated experiences of teachers and school leaders are distilled, analyzed, and shared. Foundered on a supportive enabling environment, a rich array of strategies and measures to inform and impact learning and growth are seamlessly linked to the underpinnings of Clarity and Visible Learning. As we have come to expect from the authors’ significant collective body of work, with a laser-focus on school improvement work and outcomes, the models, skills, case studies, and practices are as always informative, targeted, and immediately actionable. What more could you want?!"