At an in-service a couple of weeks ago, we received the little research tidbit that middle-school-aged students have a maximum attention span of some eleven minutes or so. The implication — made very explicit by the presenter — was that our lessons should have activity changes every fifteen minutes or so. You know, in order to keep students engaged and focused.
No mention was made about trying to expand and stretch students’ attention span and ability to stay on task for more than a relative nanosecond. And the notion that we could just say, “Look — today you’re just going to have to focus on this for more than a few minutes” was implicitly ruled out.
Which is good, because in high school, college, and beyond, all you really need is an ability to focus for about fifteen minutes in order to be successful.
The problem with these little research tidbits is you don’t know if it’s a structural problem (brain chemistry interferes) or a behavioral/cultural problem. Or if seeking a way around the limitation is feasible. Or if it’s even anything more than just an idea someone had after watching a playground full of kids. (I am leaning to the latter.)
*smacks hand to forehead* Oh, dear. How very, very shortsighted. God.
Well, Thud, “research driven” is, I’m finding, quite a catch phrase in education. As best I can tell, it means “this is not just some wild idea but has a piece of paper backing it.” But then again, much “research” in the field of education is just documenting what’s common sense. Pick up any undergraduate ed book and you’ll find statements like, “Some studies show that certain students have problems with drugs (Researcher, 1983).” Someone spent money to prove the obvious.
The attention span thing is B.S. I think — and easily disproved. Watch any kid playing P3. He’ll sit unmoving for hours. Which goes back to the other gold standard in education: make it entertaining. After all, you’re competing with J-Lo and Halo…