Interview techniques Active listening

Carl Rogers: the humanistic approach to listening Three conditions: Congruence Unconditional positive regard [Bracketing] Empathic understanding

Carl Rogers (1): Congruence Realness – genuineness – not putting-up a professional front or personal façade ‘What you see is what you get.’ Congruence conveys the message that it is not only permissible but desirable to be oneself. If you are going to say ‘this is me- take it or leave it’ you need to ensure that you have searched, acknowledged and dealt with your own prejudices. How do we do this…?

Carl Rogers (2): Unconditional positive regard Total acceptance – cherishing – suspending judgement – bracketing ensuring that you have searched, acknowledged and dealt with your own prejudices: allowable passing thoughts ‘Love the sinner, hate the sin’ ‘I love you, no matter what.’ Creates conditions where speaker is more able to feel safe to explore the issue in depth*.

Carl Rogers (2) (cont.): *‘the issue in depth …’ Contexts for the issue in depth: Pedagogy: during a lesson – discussion; questioning; whole class; small group; one to one Pastoral: form tutor; pastorally caring for the child; dealing with an incident; restorative justice

Carl Rogers (2): Unconditional positive regard Leads towards deeper exploration Leads towards deeper critical reflection and questioning of one’s own assumptions and ways of making sense of the world More likely to face oneself honestly without the ever present fear of rejection or condemnation Leads towards greater responsibility and independence Leads towards self-acceptance.

Carl Rogers (3): Empathic understanding To track and sense accurately the ideas, feelings and personal meanings of the speaker. ‘Walk a mile in their shoes.’ ‘Put yourself in their position.’ To learn what it feels like to be in the speaker’s skin and to perceive the world as she perceives it. What is more, she is able to communicate to the speaker this sensitive acceptant understanding

Active listening(1) Peer coaching* *supervision *mentoring

Active listening (2): The ‘speaker’ A chance to explore something which has been on your mind. Try to use this as an opportunity to express feelings (gut feelings?) as well as to describe facts and circumstances To attempt to shed light on a situation in order to learn something which informs future practice – critical reflective practice To bring about change and a step forward in professionalism

Active listening (3): the ‘listener’ A chance to try to put into effect the three core conditions for active listening: congruence; unconditional positive regard; and empathic understanding To facilitate insight To create the conditions for learning and deep critical reflection

Active listening (4): The ‘listener’ Some don’ts … Don’t give your opinions – bracket them (allowable passing thoughts) Don’t judge Don’t try to fix it Don’t try to problem solve Don’t offer solutions Just listen Facilitate the speaker to find their own way through

Active listening (5): Stages Silent: adjusting, acclimatising, settling, tuning-in focused and actively listening – begins to acknowledge with verbal nods (‘mm’, ‘right’, ‘ok’) when you feel genuinely prompted to do so, reflect what you’ve heard

Active listening (6) at an appropriate moment, reframe what you’ve heard and check that you’ve understood, ‘It seems that …’; ‘It’s looks as if …’ As you begin to move towards ending, summarise what you’ve heard, again, checking assumptions

Active listening (7) Invite speaker to respond to your summarising, a last chance for accurately expressing what is felt End with listener inviting speaker to sum-up, e.g. ‘How are we going to leave you with this?’

Active listening (8) Silence Verbal nods Reflect Reframe Summarise Check back and let the speaker have the last word Discuss: What are you thinking of doing your case study on? 3 minutes

Active listening(9) For the speaker, reflect: To what extent did you feel listened to, heard and understood? Did you manage to shed light on the situation? To what extent did you learn something which informs practice and will bring about change?

Active listening(10) For the listener, reflect: To what extent did you feel you were able to put into practice the three core conditions: Congruence Unconditional positive regard Empathic understanding?

Do try this at home…