The Intervention

Designed to address the Crisis of Connection, The Listening Project introduced the innovative method of transformative interviewing as a means of fostering interpersonal curiosity, enhancing social emotional development, breaking down stereotypes, and deepening social connections. The Listening Project’s empirically-based intervention was implemented through a 26-lesson curriculum in middle and high schools, as well as through university courses, and organizational workshops for 8 years, ending in 2024.

To evaluate the Listening Project’s impact among New York City middle and high school students, Dr. Jinjoo Han led a group of researchers in a mixed-method, pre-post observational study involving both survey and behavioral measures, the findings from which are described below.

Our Findings

Our findings from the Listening Project include:

• After participating in the Listening Project, students reported heightened listening skills, perceptions of social support, perceived common humanity, interpersonal curiosity, and empathy.

• Both students and teachers reported improved classroom climate and increased academic engagement following the Listening Project.

• The transformative interviewing task provides a valid behavioral measure of active listening skills among early adolescents — the first of its kind.

• Adolescents’ interpersonal curiosity has multiple dimensions, which are differentially related to social emotional skills (i.e., empathy, active listening) and friendship quality.

• …and more to come soon!

Publications

Nalani, A., Yoshikawa, H., & Way, N. (2024). Question asking in active listening scale for early adolescents: Behavioral measure development and initial validation. Journal of Research on Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12938

Han, J., Way, N., Yoshikawa, H., & Clarke, C. (2023). Interpersonal curiosity and its association with social and emotional skills and well-being during adolescence. Journal of Adolescent Research, 1-33. https://doi.org/10.1177/07435584231162572

Way, N., & Nelson, J. D. (2018). The Listening Project: Fostering curiosity and connection in middle schools. In N. Way, A. Ali, C. Gilligan, & P. Noguera (Eds.), The crisis of connection: Causes, consequences, and solutions (pp. 274–298). New York University Press.

team members

Principal Investigators: Dr. Niobe Way; Dr. Joseph Nelson; Dr. Hirokazu Yoshikawa; Dr. Jinjoo Han

Director: Holly Van Hare

Assistant Director: Sean Small

Funding

The Listening Project was funded by the Spencer Foundation’s Lyle Spencer Award, The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, the Einhorn Collaborative, and the Rockefeller Foundation via the New Pluralists.