Interview with the 4 Levels of Listening
Activity Summary
Students will interview each other about a relevant topic, with the perspective of the level of listening they are practising. The interviewer will afterwards present back to the interviewee what they learned and heard and share how they got inspired from them (both from what was being said and implied in the interview). This exercise is relevant to do in the beginning of teaching a new topic in the subject to spark interest and connection to it, before actually fully teaching it.
Activity Plan
1
5 min
Present/ clarify what the topic of focus in the subject is.
2
2 min
Form student-pairs and let them choose who is 1 (interviewer) and 2 (interviewee). They will try out both rounds so the order is not important. Allow students to position themselves in the classroom, so that they can conduct interviews uninterrupted in their separate groups.
3
10 min
Present exercise and principles of empathetic and generative listening levels. (See “Additional Resources”)
4
5 min
Guide students through a mini-meditation/ mindfulness exercise. Can simply be sitting in stillness. The only important thing to guide them in, is their focus on opening their perspective to have an open heart and will to learn from each other’s perspectives.
5
3 min
Both students have a few minutes (approx. 3 min.) to form questions to ask in their interview. Encourage them to ask spontaneous and intuitive questions during actual interviews and do not hold their initial questions too tightly.
Remind them of the intention of the interview:
- To understand the topic of focus and understand the potential of learning the topic through what another person (the interviewee) has learned.
- To learn from each other’s connection and relation to the topic through empathising with each other’s stories.
6
10 min
10 minutes to conduct interview 1.
Remind the students of the interview and interviewee principles/guidelines (see “Tips & Tricks”).
7
10 min
Interviewers reflect back to interviewees what they learned, understood and heard during the interview. They also share what they appreciated and might have been inspired by/ what made them curious / what they connected with / what potential they saw during the interview.
Focus on gratitude. Interviewees receive and have the opportunity to respond shortly.
8
5 min
Take a short break (e.g. a little walk to bring in new energy into the exercise).
9
20 min
The interviewers and interviewees switch roles and the process is repeated.
10
10 min
After the students have been through the exercise in both roles, take a class discussion about what they take away from the exercise, what they have learned about the topic taught in the subject and what the foundation of knowledge, motivation, curiosity, connection to-, etc. they are standing on in regards to the topic.
The students should now have a stronger foundation to learn about the topic from based on sparking a connection to it and the students understanding their own motivations, challenges and curiosities to the topic.
Tips & Tricks
- The students will practise listening to each other from different levels of listening.
- Set the foundation for a learning mindset in the classroom of appreciation and gratitude and voicing it for a motivational learning experience.
- Depending on the environment and context allow a few extra minutes per step in the activity plan.
- Potentially organise the room so that the pairs can conduct the interview without too much noise from neighbouring pairs. Alternatively let the students decide their own positioning.
Supporting principles:
- Suspend your “voice of judgement”: look at the situation through the eyes of the interviewee; don’t judge.
- Access your ignorance: As the conversation unfolds, pay attention to and trust the questions that occur to you.
- Access your appreciative listening: Thoroughly appreciate and enjoy the story that you hear unfolding. Put yourself in your interviewee’s shoes.
- Access your generative listening: Try to focus on the best future possibility for your interviewee and the situation at hand.
- Go with the flow: Don’t interrupt. Ask questions spontaneously. Always feel free to deviate from your listed questions if other questions occur to you.
- Take advantage of the power of presence and silence: Try not to interrupt moments of silence.
Guide to the role of interviewer:
- Encourage the interviewers to listen deeply and allow interviewees to talk and reflect uninterrupted. Silence is one of the best tools in the interview.
- Be generous with your appreciative feedback to the interviewee. It can be a vulnerable experience to be interviewed and that should be met with an open heart and willingness to learn from the interviewer.
- The interviewer can take notes during the interview – either by using text or symbols supporting them in reflecting back to the interviewee afterwards. Note-taking should support them in doing this, but is not obligatory.
Guide to the role of interviewee:
- Encourage the interviewees to reflect on their personal experience with-, and/or relation to the topic. It might be supporting for them to tap into the reflection (beside the questions from the interviewer) to think back to moments of them relating to the topic.
Additional Resources
See video of Otto Scharmer describing the Levels of Listening in this link: https://www.u-school.org/listening-assessment
Inspiration from the process of Dialogue Interviews by the Presencing Institute: https://pi-2022.s3.amazonaws.com/PI_u_school_Tools_2_0_Dialogue_Interviews_0ad5aa93d9.pdf
Article on the power of generative listening: https://www.storyandspirit.org/articles–musings/the-power-of-generative-listening