Listening to Lectures #1

"Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly"
-- Plutarch (46 AD - 120 AD)

By now you have listened to at least some of the first parts of the Homeschool Connections classes. These are designed for high school students. You haven't had a lot of experience with lectures, so I thought I would give you a few pointers about listening and getting things out of classes like these ones.

I'm getting the suggestions from this site: Effective listening in class but I'll put it here in bits and pieces.

The first suggestion:

# Choose to find the subject useful.

* Poor listeners dismiss most lectures as dull and irrelevant. They turn off quickly.
* Effective listeners separate the wheat from the chaff. They choose to listen to discover new knowledge.

# Stay attentive.

* Poor listeners let their minds wander.
* Effective listeners remain focused and actively try to absorb material.

Related to this, from here.

Not concentrating: The average person (yes, this includes professors) can talk at a rate of 120 to 150 words a minute, but the human brain can process from 400 to 800 words a minute (Lucas, 1998). As a result, when listening to a professor ramble on, students have a lot of “spare brain time” left over to concentrate on other things like last Saturday’s date, the latest American Idol winner, or the risqué photo they wish they hadn’t posted on Facebook.

OK, you get the point. You probably have other things besides American Idol to get distracted by. But because of the slower speed of lectures, especially when there aren't a lot of visual materials to keep you focused, it's easy to drift off and start thinking about something else.

This is why we're starting slowly. ... to get you used to the format. The teachers in the courses are all very good, know their material and have experience teaching. So you can trust that the materials are basically sound and worthwhile.