It didn't take long to get hooked on Learning to Listen, as I am list-prone and Vella included a useful line-up early--on page 2. That, and I'm still on a mission to improve my craft. Having training wheels for support is a great comfort. The Twelve Principles are not rocket science, and some of them are not even ground-breaking, but having this collective wisdom organized in a bundle is quite helpful. Here are a few of my favorite things; you'll want to read the book for the rest, in the interest of an expedient read.
- Needs assessment - in Vella's world this is tantamount to WWW. Who needs What as defined by Whom? Some of these seem obvious, but there are occasions where neither the teacher nor the learner is in a position as decision maker on the What. You may have been voluntold what to teach. But we're getting ahead of ourselves; the Who is critical. Vella is channeling Dewey as she reminds us that, "No two people perceive the world in the same way" (P. 5). We must understand what makes our learners tick, so we can frame the case studies and tweak the stories to fit their themes. This goes further than surveys and superficial interviews with impersonal questions. Is it harder to get to the psyche than to communicate at the surface? Of course. Vella asserts that the effort will be rewarded.
- Safety in the environment and the process. Safety has all kinds of implications, and I'm not sure I had considered these from Vella's perspective. Absolutely, we want to avoid embarrassing our students, and we want to encourage them to speak up. It goes further than that, though. While your familiarity with your students helps you meet them where they are, they also need to be familiar with you and with the material, for safety. Yep. I'm not saying to invite them over for cornbread and sides, and I certainly wouldn't recommend force-feeding all the material before class. However, an effective introduction of each is necessary so that credibility reigns on both counts. They feel safer if they know they're in good hands. Would you feel more secure being hauled from an abyss by a Popeye or by Olive Oyl?
- Sound relationships between between teacher and learner and among learners. The communication referenced previously sets the tone for the classroom relationship. If the teacher has made personal contact--yes, I know this isn't always possible--the learner will arrive with an attitude of positive expectancy, knowing the needs of the participants have already been considered. The relationship stays healthy if the needs of the learners continue to be a consideration, once in their seats. I can't say it better than Vella, when she observes, "When the teacher fails to show respect or fails to affirm a learner in a group or allows the fatal "plop," the whole group begins to doubt the learning relationship and often manifests anger, fear, and disappointment" (p. 11). Fractured relationships require more effort to mend than do bones. It's best to avoid the loss of trust.
- Praxis: action with reflection or learning by doing. This term was a difficult one for me to grasp, when first learning the educators' vernacular, and Vella illustrates the concept in a way that drives it home. We all know we need to relay the material, then allow time (with exercises or case studies, for example), for practice. However that isn't the end of it. Until learners are able to apply a concept generally, and in their own lives, the process is not complete. A case in point is my experience with reading a book about project management, then completing the exercises included in that text. I'm good to go with my new job responsibilities, right? Not a chance. I was introduced to project management by the text, got to know it a little better through exercises, but only now, as I juggle projects, attempting to keep each one balanced, do I really grasp the challenges. Material must be designed appropriately for this process, and the teacher must effectively facilitate, allowing time for reflection. This "... moves practice to praxis" (p. 15).
These are solely teasers. There are more principles, and the ones presented do not begin to cover the grounding in these topics that Vella provides, but you should see a pattern. Her book is, after all, about listening. Communication is not a solitary activity--well, not where learning is involved. We want our learners to be fully present. We want them to do their homework. We want that homework to be well organized and to appear to be the product of great effort. Shouldn't we lead by example?