active listening in interviews
DESCRIPTION
Active Listening in Interviews . Stephen Louw KMUTT PhD programme. Interviews in Qualitative Research. Structured vs unstructured vs semi-structured To elicit rich data through extended responses Issues arising for the novice researcher: Covering the required ground - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Active Listening in Interviews
Stephen LouwKMUTT PhD programme
Interviews in Qualitative Research
22/04/2023 2
• Structured vs unstructured vs semi-structured• To elicit rich data through extended responses• Issues arising for the novice researcher:
• Covering the required ground• Reacting to unexpected responses• Following the interviewee’s lead• Getting sidetracked
Active listening
• Intended to make the speaker feel well listened to, encourage reflection, personal insight and extended responses by:• Responding empathically• Reflecting the speaker’s message
22/04/2023 3
‘Open’ functions in active listening
• Opening‘Alright, on a completely different note, how would you describe a good teacher?’
• Probing‘Let’s talk more about the trainee, what do you think the trainee gets from the feedback session?’
• Paraphrasing‘So sometimes during the feedback you say ‘how do you think it went’ and one of them may say ‘I think it was terrible’. Do you use that as a lead in for what comes next?’
22/04/2023 4
‘Focusing’ functions in active listening
• Evaluating‘I’m interested in this concept of good feedback. Can you define what bad feedback is?’
• Clarifying‘And is that when you start your feedback?’
• Repeating‘Be ‘self-critical’?’
22/04/2023 5
Functions in active listening• Opening
Alright, on a completely different note…
• ProbingLet’s talk more about …
• ParaphrasingSo let me check I have this right then…
• EvaluatingIt sounds like…
• ClarifyingAre you saying…?
• Repeating<keyword>?
22/04/2023 6
Try it out
1. Alright and by always starting with the good things, why do you do that?
2. Okay, do you go through the good points chronologically?
3. Oh so you feel it’s not worth bringing that kind of thing up?
1. Probe 2. Clarify 3. Paraphrase
22/04/2023 7
Purpose of this paper
• To what extent did I use active listening?• How useful is active listening in eliciting long
responses in semi-structured interviews?• What problems were there in trying to
implement the active listening approach?
22/04/2023 8
Context
4 interviews with teacher trainers:– Commercial TESOL training centre in Bangkok– Eliciting beliefs about teaching, training and
teaching practice
22/04/2023 9
Analysis of interviews
Interviewer’s Initiation 1
Response 1
Interviewer’s initiation 2
Response
22/04/2023 10
Analysing the interviewer’s intention
Response 1
Initiation
Open – a new topicProbe – the same topicEvaluate – the same topic with new perspectiveParaphrase – the same subtopic, rewordedClarify – a question about the same subtopic Repeat – an echo of a word or phrase
This shows how I used their reply to elicit further responses.
22/04/2023 11
Analysing the interviewee’s interpretation
Response 1
Initiation
Response 2
Open – new content expectedProbe – additional content expectedEvaluate – change in perspective expectedParaphrase – additional content on subtopic expectedClarify – rewording requiredRepeat – no new content expected
22/04/2023 12
This analysis shows how the initiations were interpreted.
Proportion of Functions
22/04/2023 13
Function Intention Interpretationn Proportion n Proportion
Opening 44 24% 43 24%
Probing 69 38% 60 32%
Paraphrasing 33 18% 29 16%
Evaluating 8 4% 5 3%
Clarifying 27 15% 36 20%
Repeating 1 0.5% 9 5%
76% of initiations followed from the interviewee’s turns (i.e. Involved active listening).
Response length by function
22/04/2023 14
Function Intention Interpretation wordsx̄� SD SD/x̄� wordsx̄� SD SD/x̄�
Opening 111 117.6 1.06 104 109.1 1.05
Probing 94 56.3 0.59 109 67.8 0.62
Paraphrasing 37 39.5 1.05 60 34.2 0.57
Evaluating 97 19.4 0.2 77 44.7 0.58
Clarifying 36 37.2 1.03 32 35.9 1.11
Repeating 93 - 2 1.1 0.67
Large mismatch between intention and interpretation for paraphrasing
Point biserial correlation
22/04/2023 15
rpb P (two tailed)
where intention and interpretation functions match
+0.14 0.055179
where functions were intended as open* +0.02 0.818353
where functions were interpreted as open* +0.46 <.0001
*Open functions: Openings, probing and paraphrasing
http://faculty.vassar.edu/lowry/pbcorr.html
Length of response correlates to interviewee’s interpretation of initiations
Compare the length of responses with:
Mismatches between Interpretation and Intention
22/04/2023 16
Intention mismatches
Open 1 (2.7%) interpreted as a probe.
Probe 13 (18.8%) interpreted as clarify (7), paraphrase (5), evaluation (1)
Paraphrase 14 (42.4%) interpreted as repeat (6), clarify (8)
Evaluate 4 (50%) interpreted as paraphrase (2), probe (1) , clarify (1)
Clarify 7 (25.9%) interpreted as probe (1), repeat (3) , paraphrase (3)
Repeat 1 (100%) interpreted as a probe
A large proportion of paraphrase function mismatch
Clarify interpreted as paraphrase
22/04/2023 17
I Is it normally the case that they do have their [own] ideas?S Yeah and sometimes um they’re ve-, students can be stubborn so they might not think anything was amiss or they feel unusually down when they should be feeling more positive about way things.
Paraphrase interpreted as clarify
22/04/2023 18
I Alright, so basically you let them give their overall feelings first, then you go through
the positive things, if there are joint things together, then separately, and then
stuff that they need to think about afterwards.S Yeah.
Paraphrasing signals
22/04/2023 19
• ‘Let me see. You’re saying that it’s because you’re serious that they don’t participate in any great detail’ (Edge, 2005, 61).
• ‘Alright, so you’ve got a few minutes at the beginning of the lesson where they’re alone talking to each other’ (interpreted as ‘clarify’).
Paraphrasing signals
22/04/2023 20
• If I’ve understood you properly, then...• Let me see if I understand you. You’re
saying that ...• Just let me check that I’m with you. So
you mean that...
From Edge, J. (2002) Continuing Cooperative Development. University of Michigan Press.
Conclusion
22/04/2023 21
• Openings, probes and paraphrases are useful for eliciting long responses.
• Clarifying, repeating and evaluating create focus.
• The interviewee’s interpretation of the initiation is important for consistently long responses.
• Clear signals help interviewee’s recognise function of an initiation.
Purpose of this paper
• To what extent did I use active listening?• How useful is active listening in eliciting long
responses in semi-structured interviews?• What problems were there in trying to
implement an active listening approach?
22/04/2023 22
Q&A
22/04/2023 23