Learning by Listening
You can learn a lot through listening. In both highschool and university, listening should remain your prime source of information.
Amazingly, most people think listening is a trait they can master whilst passing notes, daydreaming about the week end or even sleeping in the back row - but listening is a skill which requires attention and a lot of development, that simply does not coincide well with late partying the night before.
The following are but a few rules found to make your intake of information more productive.
- The responsibility for developing interest and understanding is yours. Be an active listener and get the most out of attending lecture. Concentrate on what the speaker is saying. Sit where you can see and hear the speaker easily and where other distractions are at a minimum.
- Determine why what the speaker is saying is important to you - generally speaking, most things said are of importance. More often than not the things you do not hear the things you will be tested on. If you don't have an immediate, vivid reason for listening to a speaker, you are an unmotivated listener. Practice the habit of paying attention.
- Prepare to get the most out of lecture by reviewing the important points from the previous lecture. Preview the assigned readings to establish some background knowledge. Determine what you know and do not know about the material in order to focus your listening as an opportunity for learning. Remember, if you do not know or understand the previous week's notes the chances are you wont understand what you are hearing because most lecturers and teachers progressively build on notes as they go.
- Listen for the pattern of organization in lecture. Does it begin or end with a brief summary of the main concepts, themes, or ideas? How are details or examples used to develop specific points? What is the relationship between the points presented?
- What is the structural format? Outline? Comparative analysis? Main idea, background information, supporting points? Inductive or deductive reasoning? Once you develop an understanding of how presenters give you information, you will know how to develop essays and so on in later periods that will answer their questions in a way they want them answered.
- Ask yourself: What questions does this lecture answer? What are possible midterm questions that information from lectures could be used to answer? What is the relationship between the lectures and the readings?
- Not everything is equally important in lectures, particularly if the lecturer is discussing what he did on the weekend. Hold yourself accountable for being selective and differentiating between levels of importance. Organize your notetaking as a way to review, test your understanding of ideas, and prepare for exams.
If on the other hand you find yourself unable to concentrate, and all else fails - buy a microcassette recorder. These little devices are amazing when it comes time to review notes - particularly if you have not bothered taking notes
