Beyond Words: The Importance Of Active Listening On Teaching Performance

This study examines the relationship between active listening (AL) by professors and student assessments of teaching performance in higher education. Even though AL is not commonly taught in formal education, it plays a very important role in improving the educational experience. The existing body of theoretical and empirical literature underscores that AL and effective communication can nurture a culture of understanding, create strong academic bonds and contribute to a more supportive learning environment. We use a dataset of annual student evaluations conducted at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje between 2011/12 and 2022/23. From an empirical perspective, we employ a two-step system GMM estimator to account for potential persistence effect and endogeneity problems, such as reverse causality. The main findings indicate that AL significantly improves overall student satisfaction. The other important factors such as clarity of presentations, preparedness, content quality, and the ability to stimulate critical thinking also positively influence student evaluations. In contrast, the gender of the professor, instructional materials, and tenure appear to display no discernible impact.