May I have Your Attention, Please?

No, this is not about Eminem's song.

Attention → Engagement → Learning

Eckhart Tolle, the author of The Power of Now once said, “A short attention span makes all of your perceptions and relationships shallow and unsatisfying.”

For our context, I would modify that quote as, “a short attention span makes your engagement and learning shallow and unsatisfying.”

I am very vocal about “attention” in the classroom. I regularly tell my students, “If you are here in the class, be 100% here.” We also experiment with a few attention/distraction related activities for them to experience how their learning is massively affected by their ability and willingness to attend.

But does this really secure their 100% attention?

Not really. However, a constant reminder here and there helps the students bring their attention and focus back into the class. I would have to hope. Because the problem with attention is I can’t really be so certain whether the students have mentally checked out or not.

So, in this post, let me share with you some ideas that you can try in your classrooms and help your students give/maintain attention.

These are about how you can:

- raise awareness about attention
- incorporate specific actions to enhance attention
- make students accountable towards their attention

Read along.

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1. Awareness:

a. Make them aware that attention is the gateway for learning. What you attend is what you (may) end up learning.

b. Debunk the myth of multitasking. This is a huge myth among many young people. Here’s an interesting ted talk video you can show them. It talks about mono-tasking instead of multi-tasking to improve creative output. It’s just 2 mins and 52 secs long.

c. Talk about distractions that harm attention. Side talks. Noise. Technology. They are all major source of external distractions.

For instance, cell phones, even when they are kept upside down are huge distractions.¹ Attention is so annoyingly fragile.

Here’s something I recently found out about one major distraction for me (and other students) in the class. A couple of students were giving a presentation and I was at the back, taking notes and writing comments. Everyone else were silently listening to the presentation. Yet still there was this irritatingly constant click-clack click-clack sound coming from the middle of the classroom. Apparently, it was from a couple of students unconsciously pressing their ball-pen’s end cap (the retractable plunge part).

Students also come in with internal distractions. Excuses. Mood. Personal problems. Emotional baggages. Negative biases. Lack of motivation, etc. As a teacher, you would have to hope they are able to leave their baggages outside the room.

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2. Actions:

a. Move around:

Walk around - slowly and intentionally - the class to make sure the students are on task and on “attentive” mode.

Don’t just waddle around because you can’t stand still. Move towards them so that everyone knows that you care about their learning, their work, their attention. Move away from them so that they know you trust them.

Also, make them move around.

b. Throw Cold Calls:

Tell your students that you could ask question to any random student at anytime during the class. Instruct them not to raise their hands (or blurt out the answers) right away. Practice the concept of “think-time”. Give them a demonstration of how you would want the students to respond.

c. Check for Understanding:

Assess your students regularly in the class. Give them quick and short quizzes. Ask them for peer-feedback. Instruct them to write summary of the class learning. The intention is to keep them always in the attention mode.

d. Maintain a balance of “doing” work and “thinking” work:

I know I know. Learning by doing is such a big thing in education right now. I get it. Teachers/Admins/Parents want to see their students “doing” most of the time that just passively sitting on the desk, listening to the teachers.

However, we all know that every approach has pros and cons, especially when teachers do it in a very superficial way, or just to escape the glare from their admins.

I argue, (with heavy evidence from cognitive science in the topic of working memory and cognitive overload), that “learning by doing” done just for the sake of doing is a huge distraction against students’ attention.

e. Add variations in your delivery/content/presentation:

May be not so much in schools and colleges of Nepal, but in the institution I work at, admins regularly take feedback from students regarding their learning experience. One of their common complains is about “boring” classes.

Students: We can’t give any attention in that class.
Admins: Why?
Students: The class is so boring.
Admins: What do you mean?
Students: The teacher has a boring style.
Admins: What you do mean?
Students: Boring style. Too slow. Too soft. Too passive. The content is boring. The slides are too crammed up. Same activities. Same discussion.

What the students really mean is they need variations - to remain attentive, to be motivated, and to learn.

My go to strategy is to create moments of chaos and order. Sort of Yin-Yang in the learning process. Through my content, design and delivery.

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3. Accountability:

As a teacher, you can’t force attention, nor can you force learning. You could say, “I don’t care / मलाई के मतलब?” about their roles. That would be a grave mistake. You could say, “Every thing is my fault / सबै मेरो गल्ती हो।”. That would be an equally terrible mistake.

Therefore, you have to talk with your students about their roles in giving/maintaining their attention for learning. Because, at the end of the day, their attention and learning are in their own hands. You can only do so much.

You can also help them set goals related with attention.

For instance, in a workshop session, my first slide is about: “How attentive do you plan to be in this session? Pick a number from 1 to 10.” And, somewhere in the middle of the session, I have a quick check: “How attentive have been been till now? Pick a number from 1 to 10. What can you do to stay more attentive?” And, towards the end of the session, the final check-in: “On average, how attentive were you through out the session? Pick a number from 1 to 10.”

I would also ask them to reflect on their attention level, their behavior, and their learning intentions. And share their thoughts.

You can do something similar in your class. I am sure, you could do this in all levels, from primary grades and in graduate levels.

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Finally,

Attention is a major element in learning and in our human cognitive architecture. If you want to explore further why every teacher must be a great “attention-manager” in the class, read the works of John Sweller (Cognitive Load Theory), Doug Lemov (Teach like a Champion) and Peps Mccrea (Memorable Teaching).

Till next post,
Stay attentive, keep your students attentive.

1. Article. Some excerpts:
Researchers have started analyzing the dark side of excessive mobile phone use on psychological well-being such a stress, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance…. The diversity of mobile phone features and functions induce excessive usage behavior and users experience difficulty in controlling the time they spend on the device and are easily distracted….