Attention matters: How orchestrating attention may relate to classroom learning

Abstract

Attention is thought to be the gateway between information and learning, yet there is much we do not understand about how students pay attention in the classroom. Lever-aging ideas from cognitive neuroscience and psychology, we explore a framework for understanding attention in the classroom, organized along two key dimensions: Internal/external attention and on-topic/off-topic attention. This framework helps us to build new theories for why active-learning strategies are effective teaching tools and how synchro-nized brain activity across students in a classroom may support learning. These ideas sug-gest new ways of thinking about how attention functions in the classroom and how dif-ferent approaches to the same active-learning strategy may vary in how effectively they direct students’ attention. We hypothesize that some teaching approaches are more ef-fective than others because they leverage natural fluctuations in students’ attention. We conclude by discussing implications for teaching and opportunities for future research.