Learning To Listen

By Franklin Skribbit


One of the most important skills that any college student can develop is the skill of listening with purpose to others. Not only will this skill of being able to listen to others help these students as they go forward into their professions of nursing, business, or other industry, it will likewise play a critical role in how well they perform while studying to earn their nursing degree or business certification.

But there is much more to critical thinking than simply a buzz word that can make a college student appear smart. Although, in reality, those who understand critical thinking, like the collegiate level professors some students are trying to impress by throwing around the phrase critical thinking, likewise understand when others do not know the concepts involved in critical thinking.

Critical thinking is much more than an elusive idea for incoming freshmen. Critical thinking can be a guiding light for those who understand how and when to employ it.

While critical thinking can be brought into use in almost any situation, and indeed should strive to implemented where and whenever possible, the most frequent use of critical thinking most often occurs when college students write essays. Thinking critically is a near requirement for a college student to write a strong essay.

Often times, there will be numerous distractions that can hinder the efforts of the listener. Clearing these distractions from one's mind can be difficult, but with practice, a person can learn how to develop the focus necessary to push distractions form their minds and begin to listen effectively to the speaker.

Early preparation for an exam should take place every day in the form of study. To effectively learn the material, and to therefore perform well on the test and prepare fully for the exam, a student should plan time each day to review and study the lesson that was taught that day so that the information has a chance to sink in and become fully engrained in the mind of the student.

After a person has learned how to focus on the speaker by eliminating both external and internal distractions, they can then turn their listening skills to develop analytical listening, or thinking about what is being said as it is being said.

But this does not mean writing an organized paper from jumbled thoughts. No, rather it means that a student must first write their thoughts in whatever form them come so as not to forget these important inspirations once the drafting of the essay does begin.

Writing down the thoughts that a student has while looking over their notes, materials, and research will give them a base to recall ideas for the next step of organizing their thoughts into a cohesive outline of an essay. To begin thinking critically, a student must write down all that they know on their subject, organize that knowledge into groupings of like material and then ask questions such as "what is the purpose of this, or what is the significance of that" which questions will spur further thought and inner discussion.

As this discussion with oneself over the subject matter of the paper continues, one will find that they are beginning to think critically on their theme. By performing this process for each paper, a student will be able to write more meaningful papers.




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