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Learning to Listen: Teaching an Active Listening Strategy to Preservice Education Professionals

Pennsylvania State University, University Park, dbm2{at}psu.edu.

Dawn Hamlin

Pennsylvania State University, University Park

John McCarthy

Ohio University, Athens

Darlene Head-Reeves

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Mary Schreiner

Alvernia College, Reading, Pennsylvania

The importance of parent–teacher communication has been widely recognized; however, there is only limited research on teaching effective listening skills to education professionals. In this study, a pretest–posttest control group design was used to examine the effect of instruction on the active listening skills of preservice education professionals. Instruction resulted in statistically significant improvement for targeted active listening skills. As a measure of social validity, parents of preschool and school-age children viewed pre- and postinstruction videotapes of preservice education professionals in role-play conversations. The parents judged the postinstruction performances of the preservice education professionals to be better examples of effective communication than the preinstruction performances of the preservice education professionals.

Key Words: parent–teacher communication • active listening • preservice education professionals

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Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, Vol. 27, No. 4, 223-231 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0271121407311241


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by McNaughton, D. Articles by Schreiner, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?