ABSTRACT
The work done at the Graduate School of Business at Harvard, under the wise mentorship and teaching of C. Roland Christensen, has produced a network of resources that address the kind and quality of communication skills required for effective interactive teaching. If true discussion is to take place in the classroom, then all participants – teachers and students alike – must acquire perceptive listening skills. The most comfortable way to begin working on listening and attending skills is – oddly – with simulations. At this level of practice, the "teacher" is advised to listen and only to either paraphrase what has been heard, or to say back – repeating what has been heard. The result of this response is that the student has felt "heard" – and that his or her statement has been accepted and "played back" without judgment.
