DISCLAIMER: The following post was originally completed as part of my coursework for EDUC 520-Student Learning and Motivation, one of my grad classes. If you are not interested in education, this is going to be wicked boring. Please feel free to check out some of my other posts!
Everyone alive is receiving information all the time through their senses. Although they may not realize it, they are actually receiving far more information than they are able to process. Before they can process anything for learning in their working memory, they must first filter through all that input and decide what is worth focusing on. This process is called attention (Biehler, McCown, & Snowman, 2009, 249).
This process is incredibly important to be aware of because attention must be given before learning can take place. A room full of distracted students may as well be asleep or at home watching television. In his article "3 Crucial Strategies for Getting Students Attention that will Help You!," Ben Cooper identifies three stages of attention necessary for ideal learning: immediate attention, short term attention, and long term attention (2019). Immediate attention gets the student to focus on the teacher, short term attention gets the student to focus on the lesson, and long term attention keeps the student engaged through an entire learning unit. He advises gaining immediate attention through questions because those can be related to the learning unit. In order to maintain short term attention, he advises giving students ownership by letting them in on the goal and purpose of the unit. Long term attention requires students to buy into the purpose of the learning unit (Cooper, 2019).
Although Cooper’s mentality and goals are in line with purposeful education, experienced teachers will know that not all students will pay attention to a meaningful question right away, or may lose focus through the course of a lesson or chapter. This can be due to an individual student’s lack of regulation around any kind of distraction, or even due to an unpreventable anticipatory association the student may have between the lesson objective and boredom (Biehler, McCown, & Snowman, 2009, 249). In that case, lesson-related questions may not gain students’ attention, but more practical methods might!
In her article "Tips and Tricks for Getting Your Students’ Attention," Janelle Cox offers a few practical pointers for gaining and keeping students’ focus, whether or not they are interested in the topic. For simply gaining attention, she highly recommends call and response and non-verbal cues. Once attention is gained, she recommends strategies for keeping that attention throughout the lesson including: limiting teacher talking, designing hands-on lessons, getting the students moving from time to time, using visuals, and incorporating music and media into the lessons when possible (Cox, 2020).
Every teacher wants students that pay attention, as it is vital to the very beginning of the learning process. What many fail to realize is that they don’t have to write off poor attention as a lesson lost; teachers can gain and hold their class’s attention through skillful strategies and intentional instruction.
References:
Biehler, R., McCown, R., & Snowman, J. (2009). Psychology applied to teaching. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Cooper, B. (2019, March 20). 3 crucial strategies for getting students attention that will help you! Teacher of Sci. https://teacherofsci.com/strategies-for-getting-students-attention
Cox, J. (2020, August 26). Tips and tricks for getting your students' attention. ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/tips-and-tricks-get-students-attention-2081544
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