Active listening is a set of verbal and nonverbal skills, essential to effective interpersonal communication (Bodie, Cyr, Pence, Rold & Honeycutt, 2012; Gordon, 1975; Rogers, 1951; Rogers & Welch, 2009).
It is defined as an involved listening with a purpose to deepen the interviewer’s understanding of the speakersu2019 preoccupations and interests by creating empathy and making the speaker feel well listened to without judgment (Weger et al., 2010).
Improving teacher’s skills is not only affective for the student-teacher relationship and the learning process but also for the effective communication with parents (Rogers & Welch, 2009).
Active listening skills can help both educators and parents build a sincere and based on trust relationship (Lasky, 2000; McNaughton & Vostal, 2010).
Some most known active listening practices/procedures include (McNaughton & Vostal, 2010):
a) Empathetic annotations,
b) Asking appropriate questions, and,
c) Paraphrasing the speakeru2019s comments in a sense of demonstrating attention and verifying comprehension
d) Summarizing