Listen carefully for the best way to boost pupil learning

Published on Friday 4 September 2009 09:44

SECONDARY pupils who are encouraged to listen actively and criticise constructively what they have heard in class are more likely to perform better, a study by Edinburgh University has found.

The research found that students tended to do better when asked to interpret and respond critically to what they had heard.

Researchers invited ten English teachers in schools in Edinburgh to devise a series of four or five lessons designed to develop pupils' listening capacities.

Teachers and pupils were interviewed about pupils' performance before and after the lessons. The teachers focused on enabling pupils to not only absorb information, but to analyse the ways speakers and writers used language to persuade, guide and manipulate their audiences.

Dr Pauline Sangster, of the university's Moray House School of Education, said all the teachers reported a marked improvement in the listening performance of the majority of pupils.

She said: "Our findings suggest that by incorporating such approaches, teachers can improve the pupils' learning experience."