Research objective

Listening is an essential communication skill in the primary school context for different reasons. First of all, listening skills are an important medium through which students acquire information. Students also require listening skills for activities such as listening to instructions or directions from the teacher. Moreover, listening skills prepare young students for various academic skills (e.g. reading comprehension) and social skills (e.g. group discussion) (Adelmann, 2012; Dickinson, McCabe & Sprague, 2003; Jalongo, 2008). Despite the importance of listening skills, many students experience difficulties in listening (Janusik, 2010; Swanson, 1997). Furthermore, numerous studies have stressed the lack of knowledge in the field of listening skills and a systematic overview of the factors influencing these students’ listening skills in the primary school context is missing (Imhof, 2008; Swanson, 1997).

Consequently, the research objective of this study is to gain more insight in the school, classroom and student level characteristics related to primary school students’ listening skills. In order to reach this goal, a systematic review of the international literature on listening skills in the primary school context will be conducted, using the educational effectiveness model of Palardy and Rumberger (2008) as an analytical framework. This is a detailed multilevel model that explores the relationships between student, classroom and school level characteristics, and students’ educational outcomes such as listening skills.

In summary, the research question of this systematic review is to identify which student, class and school level characteristics are related to primary school students’ listening skills. In doing so we use the model of Palardy and Rumberger (2008) to analyze in a systematic manner which inputs and processes may influence students’ listening skills.

Theoretical framework

In this study, the definition of listening skills is based on the classroom version of the HURIER-model of Brownell (2002). The six components of the HURIER-model are hearing, understanding, interpreting, evaluating, remembering and responding. After a literature review, four components (i.e. hearing, understanding, interpreting and evaluating) will be utilized in the definition of listening skills in the classroom context. In recent listening research, the fifth component “remembering” is replaced by the working-memory (Janusik, 2007). In the specific classroom context, the sixth component “responding” refers to active and interpersonal classroom listening (Canpolat, Kuzu & Yildirim, 2015). Consequently, effective listening in the classroom context refers to “an active and (inter)personal process whereby students not only hear, but also understand, interpret and evaluate what is being presented by both aural and visual input and relying on the capacity of the working memory.”

The model of Palardy and Rumberger (2008) is an educational effectiveness model, which presents in a systematic manner the inputs and processes related to students’ educational outcomes. According to the model, input and process characteristics are situated on the school, classroom and student level. As such, the model describes educational effectiveness as a multilevel system in which student outcomes are influenced by student level characteristics (i.e. student background and student experiences), classroom level characteristics (i.e. teacher background, classroom features, teacher attitudes and teaching practice) and school level characteristics (i.e. school inputs and school processes). 

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