CONCEPTIONS OF LISTENING, LEARNING-PROCESSES, AND EPISTEMOLOGIES HELDBY AMERICAN, IRISH, AND AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITY-STUDENTS

48 American, 39 Irish, and 52 Australian university students completed surveys focused on listening and related constructs. Students were as ked about their conceptions of good listening, the difficulties they e ncountered listening and their methods for solving these problems, the ir typical demeanors while listening, their reasons for asking and not asking questions, their levels of motivation, their ranking of achiev ement in comparison to peers, their personal epistemologies, and the l earning processes they employed. Students cited a variety of features of good listening, problems and methods of solving them, and reasons f or asking and not asking questions. Some aspects of listening were ass ociated with learning processes, such as question asking and elaborati ve processes. There was also evidence that listening comprehension pro cesses and superficial, behavioral aspects of listening were somewhat independent of general epistemologies and learning processes. Predicto rs of question asking were examined, and cultural differences were obt ained in listening, learning and epistemology composites.