Turning to the Pedagogy of “Listening”

Abstract

“Lecturing” pedagogy puts teachers’ lecturing at the core of education. Both knowledge and norms become the “goods” waiting to be transmitted to students. This pedagogy keeps a control- based axiology and mirror-based epistemology. The “listening” pedagogy puts teachers’ listening and mutual listening between teachers and students, among students as the core of education. On the level of axiology, it makes “good listeners” i.e. persons with freedom as the aim of education, who integrate morality and creativity. On the level of epistemology, it sees educational process as the cooperative creation of knowledge. On the level of methodology, it integrates listening, description, interpretation, and action as a whole. In today’s China, educational fields should turn to the paradigm of a “listening” pedagogy.