# Concentrate on the words and message, not on the professor's looks, clothes or delivery.
* Poor listeners notice faults in a lecturer's appearance or delivery.
* Effective listeners strive to pick every professor's brain for self-gain.
# When you hear something you're not sure you agree with, react slowly and thoughtfully.
* Poor listeners stop listening to the speaker and start listening to themselves. They either passively reject what is being said or they launch into impassioned rebuttals (to themselves).
* Effective listeners don't jump to conclusions and then disengage. They keep conclusions tentative while getting more information.
Related to this:
This part is about avoiding snap judgments. Particularly when you don't know someone very well, it's easy to focus on something about them that isn't related to what they are actually saying. It's OK to pay attention to appearance, voice, style of talking and so on but don't let that part of it make you stop listening to what is being said.
# Don't get derailed by emotionally charged "buzz" words that trigger negative responses.
* Poor listeners tune people out on the basis of a few words.
* Effective listeners don't let the emotional baggage of a word hinder them from getting at the substance of a lecture.
If something strikes you the wrong way at first, take some time to think it over. It's possible to keep new ideas and knowledge in a "waiting room" part of your brain. You can consider how it MIGHT be true and wait for further information or reasoning, without immediately jumping to a conclusion about whether it is true or false.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. --Aristotle
KTR
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