Rule # 4: We don’t pay attention to boring things.

Ironically I had trouble attending to this chapter. I was reading this at my parents’ home and was constantly distracted. This is not to say the chapter was boring, just illustrated to me that it was difficult to keep refocusing if there are many distractions around.

As I read this chapter I was thinking of the many special education classrooms I have visited. Often these students have difficulty maintaining attention. Yet because they are in smaller classes and space is at a premium frequently special education classes must share a room. I have spent time in a room shared by 4 teachers. Two, sometimes three classes meet at the same time. Small room dividers do not eliminate sound and distractions. I had trouble working at my best in this room and I do not have any attending difficulties. The teachers did a wonderful job trying to remove distractions but there is only so much one can do when math, science and language arts groups are all meeting in the same space at the same time.

If attention is so important to retention, why in the world do we place these students in a space where there are more distractions then a regular classroom. We should place them in rooms with fewer distractions where they might have a fighting chance to be attentive. We must optimize the environment for learning.

John Medina describes a few things that affect our attention.

1. Emotions get our attention
If we are emotionally connected we tend to be more attentive.

2. Meaning before details
We remember how we felt about an event more so then the details. We have a better chance of remembering the details if we have the basic idea. We need an over arching idea that we can attach the details too.

3. The brain does not multitask
The ability to multitask has become a prized skill. More accurately it is the ability to switch tasks quickly that is the skill. Research shows that the brain activity attends to one thing at a time. Each time we switch a task it takes time to refocus, we might get things done faster if we did them one at a time.

4. The brain needs a break
Research has shown that we can only maintain our attention for about 10 mins. After this time we need to have something re-grab our attention to keep us going. We also need time to process what we have just learned.

I really am not doing justice to this chapter or the book for that matter. I highly recommend reading Brain Rules, at the very least watch the short video clips on the web site.