Empower Your Learners by Lending an Ear to Your Pre and Primary Class

Pre and Primary classrooms are not just teacher to student interaction. Rather it’s both way and teacher plays a vital role of a listener and thus empowering the students in the learning process. Hence good listening skills are needed to develop empathy and understanding with the students, and also must have the ability to assess whether they understood what are being taught.  Listening skills also help in negotiating with students and defusing a suddenly erupt classroom conflicts. 

Listening is a two-way process wherein the teachers not just only do the talking but also listen to the students. As the students spend a lot of time listening to the teacher, this enhances their listening skills. Both the teacher and student learn from each other. The practice should be such that students develop their own educational plan which involves searching and finding solutions to their everyday queries and problems generated. They must never consider the teachers as the fountain of all knowledge. 

The teacher must have the ability to empathise with the student’s viewpoint. Even then personality clashes, differences, status gap between teacher and student etc may rise and thus obstacle the listening and communication between the teacher and the student.  To reduce tension in the classroom the teacher must introduce empathetic listening in the classroom. He/she must promote honest communication and build trust and confidence among themselves.

21st century teachers need to cultivate a range of skills apart from teaching methods to support the learning goals of all children.  Diploma in Pre and Primary teacher training designed meticulously to produce efficacious educators who would understand the need of the students.  These educators must exhibit following characteristics to display genuine desire to understand:-

• Be attentive and not easily distracted.
• Create positive atmosphere with non verbal behaviour like body language and facial expressions.
• Act like a mirror, by reflecting what exactly you are feeling.
• Show that you are never in a hurry and maintain silence throughout teaching, as this gives students opportunities to think and reflect on questions and topics in their mind before verbally giving an answer.
• Never get emotionally involved, angry, argumentative and upset. Always maintain a professional attitude while you interact with students, as you are their role model and children look up to you for directions. 
• Never jump to conclusions and judgement about any student.
• Avoid pre-conceived ideas about a student based on what you have heard from a colleague or former teacher.

Always show that you are listening. Lend you ear in their learning process. This can be done by encouraging acknowledgements like ‘Yes’ or ‘I see’ or simply by nodding. Even without any verbal communication you can show that you are listening like eye contact, facial expression or relaxed body postures. And always remember to invite more responses from the students and thus encouraging them to speak up with full enthusiasm. Use of words- ‘tell me more’ or’ I’d like to hear about that’- words works like magic. Never interrupt or change the subject as this is very discouraging.  

Thus the pre and primary teacher training course prepares you to handle the most important aspect of communication. You stop to teach or preach or just give an advice, you learn to become silent speaker. Hence the teacher becomes their friend rather a better educator from whom they learn in a playful manner. As the educator never speaks down to them, they can sense the teacher is not above their level and they would stop responding. They find it rather easy to communicate with this teacher. This improved motivation helps in the fulfilment of the learning goals.

Join the course and learn the modern techniques of teaching and grow on your skills. Classroom management is not an easy task; you have to master the skill to deal with students of all levels and behavioural pattern. Listening skill is something you must work on while you pursue the course. Candidates enrolling from different backgrounds must keep one thing in mind. This learning and teaching process is not about the subject matter i.e., ‘not what you teach but how you teach’.