Learning at home with online teachers and lesson plans may be more productive for students who are easily distracted in large classrooms. If your child is finding classroom distractions are getting in the way of learning and academic performance consider online learning. Yet what may seem like minor distractions can have a big impact on kids’ attention spans. Teachers, parents, and students all want to see kids excel in the classroom. And, when purchasing school supplies, think bland rather than bling. Perhaps it’s time to rethink that giant, bedazzled hair bow those light-up sneakers or the multiple backpack clip-ons. Parents can also do their part to minimize distractions by being mindful of their students’ accessories and accoutrements. A different study conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and published in Psychological Science in 2014 concluded that students in classrooms with an abundance of decorations (motivational posters, maps, number lines, shapes, student artwork, etc.) “were more distracted, spent more time off-task, and demonstrated smaller learning gains than when the decorations were removed.” The takeaway for teachers? Less is more when it comes to classroom décor! Teachers and parents can work on minimizing external stimuli that competes for students’ attention in the classroom. Based on the study’s results, teachers should limit lessons to 10 minutes or less, especially when they’re covering complex subject matter.Īdditionally, since students’ minds are more apt to wander during lectures and other lessons addressing the entire classroom, teachers should incorporate more small-group or individual-learning opportunities. Considering that the average adult attention span hovers at around five minutes, it’s counterproductive to subject elementary school students to lengthy lessons. However, parents and teachers can take steps to minimize classroom distractions so kids are more likely to focus on learning.īased on the conclusions the researchers drew, teachers should try to keep lessons short. In general, girls were more likely to stay on task than boys.Ĭlassroom distractions will always exist there’s no way to prevent students from envying Suzy’s perfect fishtail braids or James’ expensive tennis shoes, or daydreaming about the camping trip they’re taking the next morning.Girls were more likely than boys to be distracted by their peers.Students were more likely to become distracted during whole-group instruction than they were during individual or small-group instruction.Students were more likely to become distracted with longer lessons than they were with shorter lessons.Students became more distracted as the school year progressed.The study concluded that roughly 25 percent of an elementary school student’s time in the classroom is spent distracted-not learning! Specifically, the researchers concluded: In all, researchers observed about 1,100 students over the course of one school year. Seven researchers tracked every student in more than 50 classrooms, ranging from kindergarten to fourth grade. Researchers Conclude That Students Are Often Off-Taskĭuring a study funded by the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, researchers used a novel technology to identify the amount of time students spent off-task while in the classroom. According to one study, all of those distractions add up and undermine learning significantly. If you’ve ever spent time observing an active classroom, you’re well aware there are plenty of stimuli besides the teacher and the lesson competing for students’ attention. class or recess, or doodling a re-creation of a poster on the classroom wall, or eavesdropping on a nearby conversation, students face many distractions in the classroom. Whether gazing out the window to watch other students participate in P.E.
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