Most classes at Penn State are either 50 or 75 minutes long. This doesn’t seem like a very long amount of time, but it actually could be. “Some psychologists claim the typical student’s attention span is about 10 to 15 minutes long…levels vary widely based on factors like motivation, emotion, enjoyment, and time of day.”, according to informED.
So why are classes so long if it seems that no one is getting much out of it?
A study conducted in 1985 — even though this may seem like the data isn’t relevant anymore, it actually makes it more relevant. This study was conducted before cell phones and computers could be a distraction to students – “which tested students on their recall of facts contained in a 20-minute presentation. While you might expect that recall of the final section of the presentation would be greatest— the part heard most recently — in fact the result was strikingly opposite. Students remembered far more of what they’d heard at the very beginning of the lecture. By the 15-minute mark, they’d mostly zoned out.” In other words, students were only able to pay attention during the beginning of class.
This proves that students attention spans are far smaller than what they are
thought to be. So what can we do about this? Obviously you cant just give 10 minute lectures and be done for the day. One way to try to improve the attention span of students would be having them put away their cell phones and limiting laptop use to strictly note taking for class purposes. This would remove side conversations with friends and whatever gossip is happening on social media.
Another way to keep students engaged is to interact with them in lecture. By asking question or using clickers, you keep the students attention because they are going to need to know the answers to these questions.
All in all, it is critical that professors use techniques for keeping their students attention span so that they can learn the most they can learn.
This is a very interesting topic. I agree completely with your information. I feel it is very hard for me to pay attention for an hour and 15 minutes of a class lecture. I feel teachers should be more open to using different techniques in class instead of the simple lecture strategy. I know, that in a lecture, I will only remember the first few minutes of information, before I start to zone out. As stated above, the use of clickers, and class participation, the teacher can make the class a lot better. I found this article you should check out for more information.
This blog post was interesting and I agree with your point about ways to improve attention span in students. As Andrew has discussed in our previous classed, the halo effect caused by laptops distracts not only the student on the laptop but everyone around them. Although some lectures do keep students engaged it is especially hard when an individual has a particularly low attention span. In an article I found, it tested on the idea of the 15 minute attention span that you stated. The article tested this theory and the results came to show that students were more likely to have lapses in attention after 1 minute. But these lapses occurred in waves, meaning that it wasn’t consistently every minute but in chunks of time. Using this information and data, you could further your blog post with more recent information and studies similar to the one that I referenced.
I have always wondered whether or not classes are too long and although there are many third variables, I do believe that they are too long for a portion of students. I agree that there needs to be certain rules about technology being put away because that is one of the biggest distractions possible. When in the middle of a long and boring lecture early in the morning, it is easy for students to just pull their phone out and stop paying attention and before they know it they are behind a couple lessons. I think you should look if there have been experimental studies that showed productivity when students have no technology to distract them and when they are freely able to use technology. It could really strengthen your argument that the use of technology lessens the attention span of students.
As a student that suffers from ADHD i found this blog to be very interesting. One aspect that you could go into further detail on is the effects that technology have not only ones attention span but for younger students there brain development. This article (http://webwisewording.com/shorter-attention-span-technology/) really goes into detail and explains the adverse effects technology can have on a child’s brain development. It can effect not only there attention span but there self esteem and empathy. Another article i found (http://day2dayparenting.com/qa-normal-attention-span/) not only explains how children with ADHD are effected in the classroom but the attention span of children at different ages. Your blog post was very interesting and there is defiantly many other sub topics related to this that you could focus on for another blog.
I think these kinds of topics need to be better spread throughout the teaching community, because oftentimes educators forget that the average person’s attention span is not an hour and 15 minutes long. When I go to study for a test for one of my 50 minutes tests, I find that I can remember almost all of the material we covered on a given day. When it comes to my hour fifteen classes, however, it’s a bit different. I become frustrated, finding that I can only remember what we covered in the first half of class. But my later notes from the second half of class become a bit blurry, and I can understand (obviously) what I wrote down, but not what my professor said about it. Some days it is different. For example, I recently had a guest speaker come to one of my classes and discuss the effects of technology on relationships. Considering this is one of the topics that my major is focused on, and that sparks my interest, it was not a difficult task to listen to everything the speaker was saying. But in an every day lecture, it’s definitely not easy. I did find this CNN article on ways to lengthen your attention span, so maybe this can help us focus in those never-ending lectures!