As long as you say something interesting during the first fifteen minutes of listening to you, the students will continue to pay attention to whatever you have to say. Students have a short attention span in general. Still, when the tutor improves his teaching skills, such as narrating a story relating to the topic being discussed and taking minor detours from the primary issue, students’ attention spans tend to extend. Let u discuss, How long can students pay attention in class?
According to psychological studies, an individual’s average attention span is about 10-15 minutes. The attention span of a student is one minute after a lecture starts, then five to fifteen minutes later, and then more frequently as the lecture progresses.
Why Should You Know The Attention Span Of Students?
• It will assist you in determining your level of preparation
• It will assist you in determining the amount of time to spend with students
• It will assist the teacher in better understanding
• It inspires you to provide additional lessons.
• It will assist you in determining where you should focus more on the subject
• It will provide you with better clarity on the issue
• It will assist you in determining the students’ degree of assimilation.
•It aids in class reorganization to maximize attention.
Steps To Increasing Attention Span
1. Start with a story
When you begin telling a narrative about what you’re teaching, the student’s attention is immediately drawn to you. The students can see the importance of paying attention to the topic.
2. Break down the concept
The fastest way to kill the attention of students is to stay too long in a particular concept. However, when you break it up into small chunks and take it little by little they will be excited to keep learning.
3. Stay Focused
How do you want students to pay attention when you constantly move from one concept to another within the same topic? Tutors will always like to appear learned and show off knowing that they are sacrificing students’ attention on the altar of pomposity.
4. Look for interesting Teaching Material
When I was a Geography teacher, I would purposely get a video of landforms and other interesting natural events for them to watch. They will be more attentive than ever after watching the video. It will make them more interested in the subject.
5. Challenge the students
A teacher should find a way to challenge the students to feel the need to prove him wrong and raise their egos. Sometimes, You ask a question and demand that whoever answers the question correctly will receive a gift.
6. Make them Teachers
Students will be interested in the topic of discourse when you appear to be like them for a while and lift them to your status. For example, in My former school, I would distribute topics to My students and allow them to teach and tell them to ask me questions so that I would answer them that way, they tend to pay attention and become completely immersed in the lecture.
Factors Affecting Students’ Attention.
• Motivation
When the student is motivated and able to find why they are learning the concept. They are much more likely to pay attention. When you tell them that what you’re teaching them might come in the test or exam they will be triggered to be more attentive.
• Status of the Tutor
Students will naturally pay attention to someone with a built-in healthy body, scary, or who is wealthy, especially. When I was in high school, the entire students were terrified at the sight of a teacher who disciplined students very well. You have no reason whatsoever to make noise or sleep in the man’s class. With that strategy, he tries to enforce attention at all costs.
• Familiarity
When the student is familiar with the topic you’re teaching them they can easily relate to what you’re teaching and ask questions for clarification. I was able to comprehend certain topics if I had been exposed to them somewhere. It never took me much time to understand the Law of Elasticity in Elementary Physics simply because I use to hunt birds with a Catapult in the village.
• Environment
When the surrounding environment is very noisy, the students tend to lose interest instantly. And the dirt environment can be very appalling.
• Ineffectiveness
When a teacher can’t articulate his ideas, the students get fed up and feel less interested.
Conclusion
There are endless measures to take, as a teacher, to enhance students’ attention in the classroom. The much-needed thing to do is to improve as a teacher in your field to improve student’s attention span. You will observe how much attention they will have to pay.
