Page Sections:
Generative Listening
Video Resource for Workshops
Listening is not merely hearing. Listening is reacting.
Listening is being affected by what you hear. Listening is active.
Michael Shurtleff, 2009
1. Why Listen?
Listen to Develop
Peace, Belonging, & Agency
Listen to Understand Youth's
Emotions and Perspectives
Listen to Develop a Culturally Responsive Practice
Carlina Rinaldi: President of Reggio Children and a Professor of Pedagogy.
"Real listening requires the suspension of judgement and prejudice. The relationship between peace and prejudice concerns the ability or disability to be good listeners.... Peace is a way of thinking, learning and listening to others, a way of looking at differences as an element of connection, not separation... We must have the courage to share, to agree or disagree. Listening provides the opportunity for professional development and human development. A “listening context” is created when individuals feel legitimized to represent their theories and offer their own interpretation of a particular question."
Carlina Rinaldi, 2004
Marilyn Manson: Industrial Metal performer, writer, actor, producer.
Marilyn Manson's music was blamed for influencing the Columbine shootings. In the documentary, Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore asked what he would tell the kids of Columbine.
"I wouldn't say a single word
to them. I would listen to
what they have to say.
And that's what no one did."
Marilyn Manson, 2002
Dr. Christopher Emdin: Creator of "Hip Hip Education", Professor of Science Education at Columbia. Emdin focuses on urban education & calls out hypocrisies in educational systems and practice.
"[Cogenerative dialogue] allows teachers to be culturally relevant by teaching based on students' thoughts and ideas instead of teachers' conceptions or assumptions about their students' culture."
Dr. Christopher Edmin, 2011
Meta Moment
Reflection Prompts
Indented for before videos
Without refining thoughts:
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Words to describe previous learning about listening.
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Experiences/people who you feel listen deeply
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How do your students listen to you, their peers, other adult
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What could the 4 types of listening mean: downloading, factual, empathic, generative
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Miscellany: jot random thoughts, words, images that may not have meaning... yet
Scharmer defines generative listening as "listening from the emerging field of future possibility" (n.d.). Listening generatively requires leaders to shift from listening for information to listening for what is possible.
We suspend judgement and agenda to notice a possibility. We allow the participants to "sit" in the challenge, learn through the experience of the moment (Dewey, 1933), and experience discomfort that leads to discovery (Lahey). By being absorbed in the moment, we can use questions to provoke individual and group thinking to the extents that push beyond the now, but far enough that they may still comprehend (Vygotsky, 1978).
The result? Through our different learning sessions, we will see how generative listening leads to:
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more meaningful relationships between all participants
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student agency
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student engagement
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safe spaces
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collaborative communities
To Begin:
The four videos below explain the 4 Levels of Listening, as developed by Dr. Otto Scharmer, a senior lecturer at MIT and co-founder of Think U and The Presencing Institute. Please watch them in order.
Prior to beginning, try the "Meta Moment" questions in the blue box.
While watching, pay attention to and record your connections and reactions.
2. Understanding 4 Levels of Listening
"We must be guardians of spaces that allow students to breathe, be curious, and to explore." Brené Brown, 2020
All Videos
All Videos
1 Downloading
2 Factual Listening
3 Empathic Listening
Generative Listening
Videos Created by Corina Fitznar using Moovly
3. Resources
3. Resources
This is one of several graphic summaries of
Scharmer's levels of listening. This is from The Presencing Institute
Scharmer's Generative
Listening Video
Scharmer breaks down the generative process between a conductor, orchestra and tenor.
This blogpost breaks down what is stated in text:
http://drewkopp.weebly.com/weltknoten-blog/leading-through-listening
On Curriculum:
Yes, we have curriculum to cover. We need to trust that we know what that material is whether we lay it all out in packages months in advance or if we co-create the path with the students. The difference is wether you want to deliver a set path or engage students in a lived experience. The purpose is there, just like is in the performance within this video. They were on the path of performing that particular piece; but they arrived there organically by all parties contributing their piece. If they were to repeat the exercise, the result would be different again. The first experience would feed the second, slight contextual differences would be at play. Either way, they played the song.
With a clear in intention, the plan can remain open-ended.
If you would like to think more on this through
story, here is a version of the Frog Prince one
by a German business leadership organization,
B-onfire, that
focuses on leading generatively.
Meta Moment
Reflection Prompts
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What do I notice in my reaction to this information so far?
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Can I explain one of those reactions in a way that connects it to my teaching and my way of engaging in the world?
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How comfortable am I with thinking of curriculum as "intention" and generative/emergent as the "approach" ?
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Good questions for collaborative reflection (do alone, then share & discuss): Are there instances of higher-level thinking, or teaching the curricular competencies, when a direct delivery method would serve better than generative approaches? Why (be specific)? Think empathetically, from the participating members' perspectives. Does your opinion stand?
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If engaging in discussion about these, or other, questions, reflect on new or changed ideas.
Brewminate hosted article by Heather Plett
How to Truly Hear from the Heart
Tips, skills, and good reminders.
Non-academic, short read.
Podcast
#15: Leading from the Emerging Future with Otto Scharmer
YouTube, TED
by William Ury, author & co-founder the Harvard Program on Negotiation
TEDGlobal 2011
by Julian Treasure, sound expert
How we listen, our current context, how to listen better, a call to teach listening. Techniques that help us with sound to understanding - helpful foundation towards generative listening.
Follow up with Treasure's
"Shhh! Sound Health in 8 Steps"
Dialogic Techniques:
Cult of Pedagogy, Jennifer Gonzalez
Deeper Class Discussions with the TQE Method
Podcast & transcript.
Host speaks with Marisa Thompson about her experiences, tips, and examples.
HOs
Cult of Pedagogy, Jennifer Gonzalez
How Dialogue Journals Build Teacher-Student Relationships
Podcast & transcript.
Host speaks with Liz Galarza about her experiences, tips, and examples. Images of actual samples on website.
HOs
Cult of Pedagogy, Jennifer Gonzalez
Get Students Talking with Ongoing Conversations
Podcast & transcript.
Host speaks with Jeff Frieden about his experiences, tips, and examples.
HOs
Brandon Stanton, Humans of New York (HONY)
This is a brief introduction to his work and how he listens that makes other feel comfortable to share. There are longer videos of interviews and lectures where he speaks in depth about his intentional, thoughtful approach of listening without judgement nor agenda.
Dr. Christopher Emdin, Columbia University Science Education Professor
Reality Pedagogy & 5 Cs (starting at 8:40)
Using different language, he is expressing how we must be present in the real context and actual people & moment before us, then respond with that information.
Professionally, we often hear of active listening, where we're aware of our body language and use techniques, such as mirroring, in order to hold our attention and glean meaning, or we focus on applied linguistics to meet literacy goals (Lynch, 2010; Treaure, 2016). Sometimes, the professional exploration of listening goes a bit deeper to focus on empathic listening, where we push ourselves to understand another point of view (Treasure, 2016). This gets is to a more personal place of connection whether it's understanding a problem, such as the "empathy phase" of the Stanford Design Thinking Model (d.School, 2010), a different way of thinking, or an individual perspective (Scharmer & Kauger, 2013).
As explored in in the early learning context (Rinaldi, 2005), higher education context (Scharmer, 2008), or business leadership (Daum, 2017; Treasure, 2016), generative learning is a powerful tool for building community, safe spaces, and agency. It requires the leader to take a step back from themselves and let go of a linear path in favour of holding space for the generation of new connections, new understandings. This is at the heart of innovation, agency, and allowing the emergence of the best possible future (Scharmer, 2008; Scharmer & Kauger, 2013).
Scharmer describes generative listening as listening with complete presence in the moment that allows us to be attentive and responsive (2008). The intention of the term "listening" is much greater than gleaning meaning from spoken words. It is being attentive to all forms of communication as it is happening in the moment, and being attentive to the influence of the context itself (Crissinger, 2020; Pinar, 2005; Scharmer, 2008). In the Reggio Emilia approach, they explore this as the 100 Languages of Children to open our listening to our many ways of being and communication (music, mathematics, body language...) (Malaguzzi,1994; Rinaldi, 2005). Like Scharmer's work, the Reggio Emilia approach's "pedagogy of listening" (Rinaldi, 2005) is an a pedagogy of listening that is generative, in that is requires the teacher-leader to be present, deeply attentive to all forms of communication, and responsive to the moment by providing provocations for new inquiries and understanding to emerge (2005).
4. More on Listening (Literature)
References
Brené Brown, (2020). Daring Classrooms. https://brenebrown.com/daringclassrooms/
Crissinger, A. (Host). (2020, May 12). Information processing choices: Unpacking levels of listening (Extras #9) [podcast
episode]. In Reboot. Soundcloud. https://soundcloud.com/reboot-io/reboot-extra-9-levels-of-listening
Daum, M. [Ma Banque Ecologique]. (2017, April 1). 7 Principles for Generative listening by Matthieu Daum [Video].
Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTMWbkymiS0
Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process. Henry
Regnery.
d.School. (2010). An Introduction to Design Thinking Process Guide [Ebook] (p. 6). Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford.
https://dschoolold.stanford.edu/sandbox/groups/designresources/wiki36873/
attachments/74b3d/ModeGuideBOOTCAMP2010L.pdf
Hemingway, E. (2014). By-line Ernest Hemingway: Selected articles and dispatches of four decades. Simonand Schuster.134.
Lahey, J. (2016) The gift of failure: How the best parents learn to let go so their children succeed. HarperCollins.
Lynch, T. (2010). Theoretical perspectives on listening. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 18, 3-19.
https://doi:10.1017/s0267190500003457
Malaguzzi, L. (1994). Your image of child: Where teaching begins.
https://www.reggioalliance.org/downloads/malaguzzi:ccie:1994.pdf
Moore, M. (2020). Bowling for Columbine [DVD]. MGM Distribution Co.
Murris, K. (2016). The posthuman child: Educational transformation through philosophy with picturebooks. Routledge,
Taylor & Francis Group.
Palmer, J. A. (1998). J. M. cooper(ed.), D. S. Hutchinson (assoc. ed.): Plato: Complete works: Edited with introduction and notes.
pp. xxx + 1808. Indianapolis, and Cambridge: Hackett publishing, 1997. ISBN: 0-87220-349-2. The Classical
Review, 48(2), 482- 482. https://doi:10.1017/S0009840X98410035
Rinaldi, C. (2004). The relationship between documentation and assessment. In Innovations in early education: the international
Reggio exchange. (vol. 11, no. 1 Winter 2004).
https://www.reggioalliance.org/downloads/relationship:rinaldi.pdf
Rinaldi, C. (2005). In dialogue with Reggio Emilia : Listening, researching and learning. ProQuest Ebook Central
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com Created from uvic on 2020-08-15 13:55:20.
Rogers, C. (1995). A way of being. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 134.
Scharmer, C. O. (2008). Uncovering the blind spot of leadership. Leader to Leader, 2008. 47, 52-59. https://doi:10.1002/ltl.269
Scharmer, C.O. & Kaufer, K. (2013). Leading from the Emerging Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies. Berrett-
Koehler Publishers.
Scharmer, C.O. [Unlisted]. (2014, July 22). u.lab 1x: Levels of listening (part 1) [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/B_5CMLr6do8
Scharmer, C. O. (2018). Leading from the future: a new social technology for out times. The Systems Thinker. https://thesystemsthinker.com/leading-from-the-future-a-new-social-technology-for-ourtimes/#:~:text=Leading%20from%20the%20Future%3A%20A%20New%20Social%20Technology%20for%20Our%20Times,-By&text=We%20live%20in%20a,creating%20results%20that%20nobody%20wants. &text=This%20time%20calls%20for%20a,%2C%20intentional%2C%20and%20strategic%20way.
Shurtleff, M. (2009). Audition: everything an actor needs to know to get the part. Bloomsbury USA.
Treasure, J.. [London Real]. (2016, January 16). LISTENING SKILLS - Julian Treasure on London Real [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p682qMKrVtA
Vygotsky, Lev (1978). Mind in Society. Harvard University Press.