This article builds on its opening premise, "Effective parent–teacher communication builds working relationships that can support strong home–school collaboration and improved educational outcomes" to support the value of training teachers to employ active listening in their work with parents and colleagues.
A handy mnemonic, "LAFF, don't CRY," is meant to assist in recalling the basic elements of active listening:
L Listen, empathize and communicate respect
A Ask questions and ask permission to take notes
F Focus on the issues
F Find a first step
Don’t
C Criticize people who aren’t present
R React hastily and promise something you can’t deliver
Y Yakety-yak-yak
(Fig. 1, p.252)
Excerpts: "The steps in LAFF don’t CRY provide a logical and easily remembered approach for demonstrating empathy and learning about parent concerns, and the strategy can provide a good start for the development of collaborative home–school teams." (p.254)
"This active listening strategy may also be useful for special educators as they work with other professionals in school settings. Paulsen (2008) suggested that one barrier to school-based collaboration is that teachers, trained to instruct children, may find it difficult to develop team relationships with other adults." (p.255)