How to Get Students to Listen Up: The Psychology of Paying Attention

by Kate Wolfe Maxlow

Did you know it's actually a survival technique to be able to tune out stimuli that the brain deems unimportant or irrelevant? Our brains are taking in so much information constantly...but we have a limited amount of long-term storage space. Therefore, as each piece of sensory information is taken in, the brain quickly assesses whether it's important or not. The important information gets moved to working memory (and eventually maybe to long-term memory) and the unimportant gets dumped to make way for new information.

Therefore, when our students tune us out, we shouldn't take it personally. Students today have a boatload of stimuli coming at them all the time; their brains have simply adapted by heightening their "importance" and "interesting" filters. It's a sign that their brains are doing what they were born to do...and that we maybe, in this fast-paced, stimuli-driven world, we need to change something about the way that we're presenting the material.

There are four big ways that brain science tells us we can engage students' attention.

1. Help students understand the importance of what they're learning.

When the brain thinks that information is either interesting or will help us later in life, we are more likely to pay attention to it. Thus means that it's essential to set the purpose for learning. Here are ways that you can do this in your classroom:

• Make connections to real-life. Start the lesson by answering the question: Why do we need to learn this? The more relevant that students find the information, the more likely they are to pay attention to it.
• Use project-based learning (PBL). PBL inherently sets a purpose for the learning. It lets students know: you will need to understanding this information in order to complete this project.
• Emphasize learning intentions and success criteria. The learning intentions tell students WHAT they will be learning, and the success criteria tell them what success will look like at the end of the lesson. Students are more likely to pay attention when they know that the information will be needed in order to be successful.

2. Introduce novelty.

Our brains thrive on new experiences. Humans are natural problem-solvers and novel experiences give us the chance to figure out how to navigate new activities. This means that when we do the same thing day after day, students are far more likely to start tuning us out...even if that thing was originally engaging.

For instance: if the first time that you played Kahoot, your students loved it, so then you started playing it every day...you might notice that instead of the original fervor for the activity, on Day 20, you notice a collective groan when you mention a Kahoot. It's not fun anymore because our brains have figured it out. It's become the Expected rather than the Novel.

Does this mean you have to constantly do something new every day? Not at all. Rather, choose 5-10 favorite activities and go back and forth between them (more ideas for these here). Occasionally (maybe once per unit), throw in something completely new that you can then add to your repertoire. Going back and forth between activities will keep them from getting stale.

3. Vary the intensity.

Imagine yourself sitting serenely in a hammock on a beautiful tropical island, listening to the birds chirping softly and the gentle lapping of waves on the shore. Then suddenly: CRACK! A giant clap of thunder! Do you jump? Of course!

That's because our brains, in an effort to scan for changes in our environment that might require our attention, tend to filter out noises, colors, and lights that are of the same intensity. Any parent who has ever had a teenager knows that eventually you simply tune out the loud rock music emanating from their room, but you sure notice when it stops. In general, though, stimuli that are louder or brighter will get more attention (that's why stoplights use neon colors).

How can you leverage this? If you're using Google docs and want your students to PAY ATTENTION TO THE DIRECTIONS, you can do what I just did: make the directions bigger, bolder, and in a brighter color.

Going analog? Clap your hands before you say an important direction. Suddenly burst into opera voice to share an important thought, if you're the opera singing type. Play snippets of music. Watch video clips (but make sure to stop and talk about them in order to get the full effect). Speak louder and then softer at different parts of your lesson. All of these help students keep their focus on you.

4. Move more!

This goes for both you and your students. Remember that scene in Jurassic Park where they evade the T-Rex by simply sitting very, very still, because T-Rex can only see things that move? Turns out, our brains work similarly in that they are also drawn to movement. A teacher who moves around the classroom while speaking will draw more attention than a teacher who stands still (just don't pace SO much and induce motion sickness).

Not only that, but students who move will get more oxygen flowing to their brains. Yes, it's true that a lot of students are quite happy sitting in their desks and zoning out, but the more that we get them used to being up and moving, the more they'll accept (and maybe even appreciate) it.

So, what does it all mean?

Does this mean that we have to all be singing opera while jumping on desks to capture our students' attention? Of course not (though I'm positive you'll get their attention if you do). But used purposefully, each of those can help compete with all the other stimuli that students face on a daily basis.



Read more here: Schunk, D.H. (2016). Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective (7th edition). Boston: Pearson.

Kate Wolfe Maxlow is the Director of Innovation & Professional Learning at Hampton City Schools in Hampton, Virginia. She can be reached at kmaxlow@hampton.k12.va.us.