How to Focus for Learning

Introduction

Attention is fundamental to learning and functioning. It is a cognitive process that is fundamental to learning and functioning

Keeping attention refers to a focusing activity and a state of mental alertness. Once in that state, the mind does not engage in unnecessary details. The individual can learn and choose information. Attention is a catalyst to initiate learning.

Research has shown that people who have a high ability to focus share the characteristics of thinking critically and creatively. However, it is not always feasible to be aware of everything at the same time. This is especially true in the school setting where students need to focus on various ways the speed and information of material is presented. In order for students have to be able to see the main issue in a problem, understand the problem and to develop ideas they need to be focused.

Student will expend a high amount of cognitive effort to keep their attention for a long period of time. Part of keeping focused means preventing distractions from taking their attention away from the learning process. This can be particularly hard in a digital world. The more attention and focus on learning, the greater the knowledge will be. In addition, increased concentration during the learning process leads to a decreased chance of losing or forgetting the presented material.

Active Learning

The type of teaching method can affect learning. Research has shown that active learning (group discussions, pair) produces superior results from lecture-only teaching. Proponents of active learning believe that this method provides opportunities for exploration, confusion and resolution that directly leads to enhanced student learning. Another advantage to this method of learning is that it increases social interactions among students which may result in increased social networks leading to potential out-of-class learning.

Environment

The efficiency of learning can be affected by the environment or atmosphere. To have a conductive learning environment, the learning place should be quiet and not easily disturbed by external stimuli. However, even under the best conditions, the individual themselves can find their mind wandering to other things other than learning. Setting up a conducive environment is has been proven as a positive factor to affect concentration. Increased concentration leads to increased learning.

An effective learning environment comprises:

• condition of school buildings
• teacher-student relationships
• student facilitaties
• upright seating (not a reclined seat)
• quiet atmosphere
• right amount of students per room (not too crowded)

Technology and Learning

Information can be accessed anywhere, anytime now with the emergence of technology and mobile devices. Many scholars believe that there is a negative impact on students capacity to learn, understand and interact with each other as a result of easy information accessibility. Attention is one key factor that has been negatively influenced by technology.

Multitasking

Multi-tasking sometimes referred to as switch-tasking or task-switching is when an individual attempts to do multiple attention-requiring tasks at the same time. For students, multitasking or distracted learning promotes negative outcomes. Multi-learning tasks will take students longer due to the reasons below:

1. they will need to refamiliarise themselves with the assignment
2. switching back and forth between tasks causes mental fatigue
3. long term retention is impaired if their attention is divided during the encoding process,
4. the brain processes information different during distracted learning that is less useful

** The only time true multitasking can work is if both tasks are very simple and do not compete for the same mental resource.

Attention

There are five categories of attention:

1. Focused attention:
   • ability to directly respond to specific auditory, visual or tactile stimuli
2. Sustained attention:
   • ability to maintain consistent behavioural responses during repetitive activities
3. Selective attention:
   • ability to maintain cognitive or behavioural focus when faces with competing or distracting stimuli
   • external stimuli examples include:
     • sounds, activity, scenery
   • internal stimuli examples include:
     • internal thoughts, worries or contemplations
4. Alternating attention:
   • ability to shift between tasks with different cognitive requirements
     • the two tasks cognitive requirements are different
   • important for students as they alternate between listening to lectures and writing notes
5. Divided attention:
   • ability to simultaneously respond to multiple tasks
   • attention alternates rapidly and continuously
   • example: preparing a meal and talking to family at the same time

More attention

sustained attention is an elementary cognitive function that underlies more complex forms of attention, such as divided or selective attention, and other cognitive domains, such as memory and learning