Harnessing Students’ Attention
Students learn more effectively when they figure things out for themselves, rather than just receiving information. If a well-designed activity sets them up to “discover” how gravity works, they’ll have a more robust understanding of the concept and be more likely to remember what they’ve learned than if they’d simply heard an expert explain about Newton and the apple. This means that when we’re designing the work we want students to do in our courses—the in-class activities, the assignments, the projects or exams—an important part of our task is directing their attention.
The questions we ask and the activities we assign can point students’ attention to phenomena, issues, data, or themes that they need to examine. We can also ask them to compare these examples against principles or theories from the course to help students see the larger overarching concepts. Yet students can only make sense of these broader principles when their attention is deliberately oriented toward the ideas that matter most.
James Lang notes that students’ attention is a precious resource. We can’t take it for granted, especially in a world of such powerful distractions, so we have to figure out how to capture and maintain it. Lang insists that “attention is an achievement” for all of us. He suggests that we explicitly address and shape “attention norms,” supporting a classroom culture that normalizes focus and engagement rather than passive attendance.
So how do we do that? Here are a few strategies. The first two on the list may sound familiar, since we frequently make similar suggestions, but it turns out that the great teaching you’re already doing tends to hold students’ attention.
Give students an active role in the class: It’s easy for attention to slip if we’re just listening to an expert, but when we’re solving a problem or explaining our thought process to a teammate, we have to be more involved. Whether they’re analyzing case studies, role playing, or just taking a quiz, students should expect to do more than listen during class. They need to be checking their understanding, practicing, giving and getting feedback, etc. The more they’re doing the thinking, rather than watching their professor do the thinking, the more they’ll be learning.
Get students interacting with each other: Peers are useful sources of feedback who can help students check their understanding. They’re also sources of peer pressure, and few students relish seeming unprepared when a team of peers is depending on them. If we want to establish attention norms, the students are an essential part of creating and maintaining them.
Change things up: As Cathy Davidson points out, “If things are habitual, we do not pay attention to them—until they become a problem. Attention is about difference.” Disrupting the autopilot experience of a course is useful, whether it’s logistical, like changing a seating chart or switching up groups, or intellectual, like assigning new types of activities and practicing new types of reasoning. It’s also useful to chunk class time into different phases, so that students are not doing the same thing for the entire session. For example, you might launch an activity with a quick explanation, ask students to write or think independently, then have them work in small groups, and close with a class-wide debrief.
Ask students about attention: This may seem obvious, but humans can’t learn much about something they don’t notice. We can ask students to notice this phenomenon. Lang asks his own students three questions: What helps you pay attention in your courses? What interferes with your attention, or drives you to your distractions? What could I do in this course to help you stay focused? Bringing students’ attention to attention can itself help them notice when their focus strays, but asking the questions can have other concrete benefits. Lang explains that his courses have benefited greatly from students’ suggestions, which include ideas like optional screen-free zones.
Share your excitement: When we keep students engaged and curious we help them to learn more and to take more ownership of their learning. They’ll also probably enjoy it more. Human beings are wired to take pleasure in discovery. Learning is exciting. Even if you’re teaching an introductory class for the thirtieth time, you probably remember how thrilling it was when the field you love first shifted your understanding of the world. We all wish for our students to share a hunger to know more. Sometimes that starts with calling their attention to something they don’t know yet.
If you’d like support designing activities that set students up to do the kinds of thinking you want them to practice, please email us at pro-teaching@fsu.edu. We look forward to working with you!
Interpreting and Responding to Student Evaluations – Faculty Workshop
Wednesday, February 25 | 11:00a.m. – 12:15p.m. | Strozier Library, Room 005A
Student feedback is essential for reflecting on our course designs and teaching practices, but finding out how students responded to us, and to our courses, can be an overwhelming experience. In this interactive workshop, we will share strategies for analyzing and interpreting the data collected at the end of each semester, and help you to make the best use of the feedback students provide in their comments. We’ll also share a variety of effective ways to collect feedback from students throughout the semester, so you don’t have to wait until a course is over to adjust it for better results.
If you would like to join us, please complete the Registration Form. We look forward to working with you!