Listening - September 1, 2008 -

Several years ago I taught a Dun and Bradstreet course titled, Listening. It revealed faulty listening habits and worked to improve them.

The students were all adults ranging in education from high school through college.

At the outset I tested their listening retention. The average was 26% retention.

The older, or more educated a person was, the poorer their retention at the start.

Curious I taught the course to my children. The youngest at the time was about 9 years old. She did much better with retention than her older brothers.

Conclusion is that as we grow older, and learn more, our mind is stuffed with information and it interferes with what we are hearing. The result is a tainted retention that misses, alters, or loses what one is hearing by information not a part of what one is hearing.

All lessons in the course were audio, then immediately tested. No audio presentation was longer than 5 minutes, and presented by a good speaker. Easy to retain everything heard? Right? Wrong. The reality was that about 75% is lost within 5 minutes after hearing it.

By the way, this is one reason ministers, preachers, and other speakers, repeat, and repeat, lessons.

In one lesson, the presentation was about religion where everyone had their toes stepped on with obviously untrue materials. The result was high emotions in the mind, and retention went out the window!

The students in the course achieved about 70% retention. They became quicker learners at whatever they did for they got it the first time.

To be a good listener one must: control emotions so that focus is best; one must keep at bay their own knowledge and information already stored in their mind; external noises must be ignored; and the mind should be focused on the speakers words. One other action can help and that is to take notes.

After hearing a message the mind can then consider it the facts and truths heard with all the knowledge it commands.

By these efforts listening with retention will go up.

Learned from experience and studies has led Paul to gainful information and knowledge.

Check http://www.geocities.com/mobleria/index.html for more information by Paul

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