Stop, Look, Are You Really Listening?

In a class lecture discussion, it's always almost the time when we, students are having the crazy listening situations. The time when we're physically on the classroom but mentally we're in Jupiter or some other parts of the universe. But the question is: why this happens? The answer may just be hiding from these ineffective listening patterns. The following are the facts based on what I've learn from my broadcasting course.

The first one is called as FAKE LISTENING, we're pretending to be listening with some acts of nodding, smiling, and even eye contacts but the truth is we're not really listening to the person who is talking. Like in the classroom, I remember when I was in high school; I always do this fake listening in our mathematics class. So my teacher, knowing that I'm really listening to our "really" hard discussion called me to answer the exercise on the board. Shocked by the sudden burst of situation, I went to he board to solve the problem in front of the class... bad news: I didn't got the right answer!

Sure thing, in our math class I'm always one of the fake listeners but I know that I'll never be a SELF-CENTERED LISTENER; this is the second type of ineffective listener. They focus on their ideas rather than those of the speaker. At the time you were talking, they already think what to say next. An example is when two people are having their argument about a certain topic. While one is saying his/her side, the other one is already thinking on what to say next to make an impact to the one talking.

Self-centered listener is not close to the third ineffective type which is the ASSUMPTIVE LISTENER; this type of listener tunes to just enough of the idea or message to figure out the point. This type of listening is always taking place when a person is really busy doing something or busy figuring out something. When one is talking to another person the listener just think for the idea and then comes to his/her conclusion and then tunes out. Some would just say "Oh, really?"

Meanwhile, the fourth type of ineffective listener is quite different from the first three, it is named as the CLOSE MINDED LISTENER; this type doesn't want to listen to the ideas that he/she doesn't want to hear because of the difference of beliefs. An example of this in the classroom is when the teacher asked certain questions about the Cyber Crime Prevention Act, one student stated her opinion of her agreement to the act but many of the class didn't listen because the idea of the one talking is different from theirs. They don't accept their classmate's opinion because they have difference in their beliefs that dictates their own views and perspectives toward the issue.