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European Vocational Skills Week
News announcement26 November 2020Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion

The power of listening, even in silence

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© 2020, Sarah Berno

I have been working as trainer in many occasions, and all the times can be totally different. I have worked in the event "Can Europa", where I was giving a pre-departure training to VET students. The group was heterogenous, made of young people of different school and background, aspect that helps in the mutual understanding and comprehension. Some of the participants were deaf, so I was pretty careful in designing activities that were inclusive all the time.
I found one activity particularly interesting: it was focus on teaching the different kind of listening, active, passive or egocentric. I was struggling with myself: I didn't know if it can be designed for deaf people, but I talked with the sign interpreter and they believe it can be really good for deaf people, because this listening competence it was related to the social aspect of it, and not to the ability of listening from a physical point of view.
The good surprise was that deaf people were the most active in the debrief, surprised by the different kind of listening and very disappointed when they found a passive listener.
This was the beautiful surprise: everyone teaching each other, everyone learning something new.

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