Education should grow the delicate flowers of our emotional hearts and souls as well as the sturdy plants of our minds; it should awaken us to depths of which the mind alone is not capable. This study presents reasoning for the necessary nurturing of students as whole people. The style in which it is written is indicative of the content itself; unrestricted and constant in motion, much like a free verse poem, the study achieves its wholeness not by wild abandonment of form, but by the embracing of a particular design that is self-generated rather than regulated. The point is to show that just as our lives cannot fruitfully be assembled then categorized, neither can teaching which is linear and disembodied provide a meaning "full" education for teacher or student. The themes of risk and vulnerability, self-knowledge, self-reflection, and self-hood, the incredible necessity to see our lives as large rather than small, and the overwhelming challenge to open up to instead of shut out the sounds of our lives are the strains that are herein taken up. Another time, another space and the issues would have presented themselves in an entirely different, but just as meaningful light. Again, the point made is how the unforeseen element of creativity rises up when thought is allowed to intertwine itself with the experiences of our lives. When allowed to self-generate, it connects all things to form a whole that once could only have been imagined. It integrates the private unfolding of a person with the concern of the public message to bear new beginnings to the conduct of things. Though this study is about teachers and teaching, in its deepest moments it is equally about students. For without the active presence of students no study can begin to ask teachers to consider the on-going need to open not just their minds, but their hearts and souls to the young people with whom they daily interact. Without the active presence of students the spirit of a "poetic" life is reduced to the singular lyrical pieces of experience rather than the encompassing epic tale that we understand is the real truth of our educations. Without the active presence of students the work of a teacher is but an accounting ledger of isolated method, a reductive energy that in the end is much about product, but little about life. / Ph. D.

The problem of this study was to determine what effect purpose, background and distractions have on the effectiveness of the listening act.

Although it is widely assumed that listening is among the most important learning skills (Wolvin & Coakley, 1988), an examination of the literature indicates that it has been woefully neglected as subject matter in schools. Listening has also been neglected as an area of research. Surveys have been conducted to see if listening is being taught or can effectively be taught, but little evidence exists to suggest that effectively teaching listening improves students' academic performance. This study investigated the relationship between listening skills instruction and academic performance among university students. The purpose was to determine if teaching university students comprehensive listening skills improves their academic performance. It was assumed that listening can be effectively taught. The goal of the study was to compare 75 students who were enrolled in a listening course to a similar group of 75 students not enrolled in a listening course. The students were compared on the basis of grade point improvement the semester after the experimental group had completed the listening course. The t test was chosen because it can be used for testing the significance of the difference between the means of two independent samples. The grade point averages of the two groups were collected and the means and standard deviations of the two groups were determined. The t-value and the probability of rejection of the null hypothesis were also determined. The data showed little difference between the mean scores of the two groups or between the standard deviations of the two groups. The observed t-value did not support the hypothesis; therefore, there was insufficient evidence to reject the null, and the conclusion was that listening skills instruction has no impact on university students' academic performance.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Thesis (MTech (Education))--Peninsula Technikon, Cape Town, 2003 / Using a case study approach, this thesis describes the listening practices of tirst year students at a technikon in the Western Cape. The research was conducted over a period of two years, from 2002 - 2003. Research data are gleaned from an analysis and interpretation ofresponses from several ethnographic tools: questionnaires (completed by lecturers and students), notes on class observations, oral interviews and audio-visual samples ofstudents' gestures and actions in class. Oral and written lecture recall assessments are analysed and interpreted with a view to describing students' listening practices. Six first year students, whose home languages are Xhosa and Afrikaans, are selected for research. The impact oftheir listening and learning through the medium ofEnglish is considered, as well as the influence ofchange in a learning culture, socio-cultural and socio-economic factors. Their life stories are analysed in depth to consider how factors in their lives influence their listening in class. Pairs ofselected students are compared to try to identify the qualities ofeffective listeners. The impact oflistening on these students' academic performance is examined and the role ofeducators as facilitators is considered. It is concluded that both students and staffhave a role to play in improving students' listening and English proficiency in order to promote academic success.

Thesis (MTech (Education))--Cape Technikon, 1998. / Adequate listening skills as an indispensable communication skill positively affect the learning process. Adequate listening skills are essential to lecturers' teaching and students' learning performance at technikons in the Western Cape. The standard of training/education in listening skills of lecturers teaching English at technikons in the Western Cape has raised concern, as it is considered a vital skill in the learning process. A questionnaire completed by lecturers teaching English at these technikons suggests a lack of adequate listening skills when assisting students in the learning process. As points of departure, information was collected on how lecturers can enhance appreciative and creative listening; what teaching strategies the lecturer can use to encourage students to listen constructively; whether workshops are conducted to improve listening skills; whether training is available for this purpose at certain technikons; and whether the use of audio-visual material in a listening programme will assist in more effective student listening. This information was then processed in terms of the aims formulated for this study.

Yes / Knowledge of the underlying mechanisms of effortful listening could help to reduce cases of social withdrawal and mitigate fatigue, especially in older adults. However, the relationship between transient effort and longer-term fatigue is likely to be more complex than originally thought. Here, we manipulated the presence/absence of monetary reward to examine the role of motivation and mood state in governing changes in perceived effort and fatigue from listening. In an online study, 185 participants were randomly assigned to either a ‘reward’ (n = 91) or ‘no-reward’ (n = 94) group and completed a dichotic listening task along with a series of questionnaires assessing changes over time in perceived effort, mood, and fatigue. Effort ratings were higher overall in the reward group, yet fatigue ratings in that group showed a shallower linear increase over time. Mediation analysis revealed an indirect effect of reward on fatigue ratings via perceived mood state; reward induced a more positive mood state which was associated with reduced fatigue. These results suggest that: (a) listening conditions rated as more ‘effortful’ may be less fatiguing if the effort is deemed worthwhile, and (b) alterations to one’s mood state represents a potential mechanism by which fatigue may be elicited during unrewarding listening situations.

published_or_final_version / Speech and Hearing Sciences / Master / Master of Science in Audiology

本研究主要探討高工學生運用前置組織(Advance Organizer)於錄影帶教學輔助上所產生的聽力理解成效。 研究對象為台灣南部一國立高工化工、機械、室內設計科等四個班145位學生。使用全民英檢兩屆考題為前後測，並以前測成績區分高、中、低分群。實驗組給予聽前單字提攜與問題引導策略教學並佐以Family Album, U. S. A和A+English聽力教材，而控制組則只有錄影帶教材而無任何聽前引導。實驗研究共進行十六週，實驗前給予兩組學生學習背景問卷調查，實驗後由實驗組學生填寫學習回顧問卷。經由測驗、問卷兩方法得知，受試學生對於此前置引導錄影帶教學輔助在聽力理解上呈現顯着進步，其中又以高分群的成效最佳。 最後，由此研究結果提出工職英語聽力教學之具體建議。期盼對職校英語聽力學習環境、學習者、及授課教師皆有所助益。 / Video-aided English learning programs have been prevalent among students to facilitate listening skills so far. The purpose of the study is to apply a proven effective treatment of Advance Organizer (AO)—vocabulary pre-teaching and pre-questioning —with video to improve students’ listening comprehension, and to differentiate the treatment effect on students of different proficiency levels. The participants in this study are 145 first-year vocational high school students in the Departments of Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Interior Designing. Two equivalent tests of the listening comprehension section of GEPT-Elementary Level are used as the pretest and posttest. Students are divided into high, middle and low proficiency groups according to the pretest scores. During the 16-week treatment duration, the experimental group receives AO instruction along with the supplementary videos—Family Album, U. S. A . and A+English, while the control group receives the same videos without any treatment instruction. Two questionnaires, the English Learning Orientation Survey and the Self-Reflection Questionnaire, serve to elicit background profiles of the participants to cross-examine the relations with their test performance. The results show that students receiving the AO with video instruction make significant progress on listening comprehension performance. It is also found that the effect is especially appreciable for students of high proficiency level. Based on the findings, this study proposes some pedagogical implications for industrial vocational high school teachers and indicates a direction to steer English listening instruction in vocational high schools.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University