Empathic listening satisfies speakers’ psychological needs and well-being, but doesn’t directly deepen solitude experiences: A registered report

Social-based learning and leadership (SBL) is an innovative pedagogical approach that centers on enhancing relationships within the educational system to address 21st-century challenges. At its core, SBL aims to help teachers transform into social architects who nurture positive social processes among pupils. Emphasizing prosocial education, SBL lays the foundation for cultivating pro-environmentalism and sustainable behavior by fostering a sense of care and responsibility toward others. SBL’s prosocial education program encompasses social and emotional skills, knowledge, and dispositions to empower pupils to actively engage in and contribute to a more democratic, reciprocal, just, and sustainable society. This approach underscores the importance of education in shaping students’ mindsets and life orientations. By nurturing a sense of interconnectedness and responsibility for the well-being of others, SBL provides a promising avenue to transform education by building more sustainable educational systems, thus contributing to creating a more sustainable future. A qualitative case study, which consisted of 18 in-depth interviews and nine observations, examined the impact of an SBL-based teacher training program at an elementary school from 2020 to 2023. The results point to changes in teachers’ perceptions of their roles as social architects and, more specifically, as facilitators of social, emotional, and cognitive processes. The teachers gained recognition as meaningful adults from their students and transitioned to hold integral positions as part of a supportive and connected school community, associating with colleagues and parents. This study thus showcases patterns of socio-organizational communication that can unfold in a school influenced by the SBL approach. SBL’s emphasis on positive social relationships and empowering teachers as facilitators of holistic student development thus further reinforces its potential to transform education for a sustainable and thriving future.

Listening is widely recognized as essential to human interaction, yet research on it remains conceptually fragmented and theoretically inconsistent. Although extensive evidence shows that good listening benefits emotional, cognitive, motivational, and relational outcomes, the field lacks consensus about what listening is, how it should be defined, and under what conditions it helps or hinders interaction. This article synthesizes these tensions by identifying 10 core “listening puzzles” that reveal contradictions in existing theories and findings: (1) what constitutes good listening and its dimensions such as empathy and non‐judgment; (2) the paradox of distraction and invisible inattention; (3) the relationship between listening and agreement; (4) when listening requires follow‐up action; (5) the benefits and risks of silence; (6) asymmetries between speakers' and listeners' perceptions; (7) the dual role of question‐asking; (8) the role of paraphrasing in demonstrating active engagement and non‐judgmentalness; (9) the balance between speaking and listening; and (10) the link between listening and personality. Together, these puzzles demonstrate that listening is neither a fixed skill nor a uniformly positive behavior, but a context‐dependent, relational process shaped by perception, goals, and situational norms. By mapping these puzzles, the article provides a foundation for a more integrated and nuanced understanding of how listening operates across interpersonal and social contexts.