The Importance of listening

Episode number 2 of Series “Discussing Controversial Issues”. If a discussion is to be useful it is essential to listen. The onus to keep the discussion going is on both the moderator and the participants. The moderator should: Summarise ideas and restore issues. The participants should: Listen to the other person’s ideas, acknowledge others’ ideas, question relevance. The case represented in this film is a discussion between black and white high school students and a white policeman concerning a fatal police shooting of a black man. The film uses this topic to illustrate skills of keeping a discussion on track (as a mediator) and relating participants’ comments and questions to each other.