Refinements Of course the
focusing strategies don't end after the first few minutes of class. That's why
there are some backup techniques which the teacher can use at the start and
throughout the session to maintain pupils' attention. The
Frozen Arm Michael
Grinder told me the story of when he was giving a talk in Germany accompanied
by a translator. Michael had a lapel microphone so that his hands were free;
the translator had a handheld mike. Throughout the conference he began to
notice that the listeners were paying more attention to the translator than to
himself, the guest speaker. Analysing this later he came to the conclusion that
it was the translator's arm position that so concentrated audience attention.
He called this gesture 'The Frozen Arm'. Have you ever
noticed in a discussion among a group of friends that when the arguments get
heated people who want to interrupt may stretch out their arms towards the
person speaking in an effort to grab their attention and be allowed to
intervene? You have probably also witnessed the same hands up system at work in
conferences or polite classrooms when an listener wants to have the floor. The
upraised hand is even more powerful if the audience intervener keeps the arm in
the air while speaking. It rivets the onlookers' attention. This insight is applicable to classrooms. When teachers observe that attention is waning while presenting content they can use a frozen arm, coupled with a short pause in speech and movement, to draw back group attention. The procedure for this is: Speak > Pause with Frozen hand > Continue. You may find it more comfortable and elegant to have a pen or chalk in your raised hand. It is just as effective. Incomplete
sentences... The human
brain craves completion. It likes information that makes sense. Perhaps that's
why we all love stories. Inversely, the brain pauses in slight confusion when
it is presented with a half-finished message. That's how we can use it in
class. To refocus a group's attention say something which is incomplete. For
example, in a voice slightly louder than normal say: “As we were
saying yesterday...” or “We were just talking about...” Then pause. The effect on
the listeners is to stop them in their tracks and the pause in voice and
movement emphasises the void in sense. Those who look up will see you standing
still, with a frozen arm for more effect. The overall result is a non-verbal
call to the group to cease what they are doing and follow you. No need for the
teacher to stare at the class, just wait for a few seconds until the group is
attentive again and continue as if nothing had happened. No confrontation, no
burnout, teacher pupil relationships intact. Break
and Breathe It is known that listeners remember most what
they experience at the beginning and the end of an content input. It makes
sense, then, to divide your lessons into short chunks so that there are many
beginnings and endings. This strategy is useful when you want to give
yourself a new start. Just as you
end one section of information move out of your present physical position and
take a breath: break and breathe. This prepares your audience to accept that
there is a moment of change and a fresh start is about to take place. It keeps
them alert. Of course a
new start is also useful if you happen to make a mistake and want to correct
the error. Notice when professional footballers tackle too hard and cause an
opponent to fall. The referee signals a foul. The player at fault often drops
down to busy himself with his bootlaces. He has effected a quite disappearance
act and is now out of general sight. Once the free kick has taken place and the
pressure is off the player stands up and continues play. He has just performed
a break and breathe. As a teacher
you can use the same move in order to keep communication clear. If you suddenly
realise you have just given wrong information by error, simply stop, move and
breathe. This creates temporal amnesia in the learners' minds and gives you the
opportunity to restart with the correct information and avoid confusion. Don't
Blink! In a stand-off
between two people there is well-known advice in English: “Don't blink first!”.
The thinking behind this is that the first person to blink in a mutual
confrontation shows weakness. Observe two boxers at the start of a fight. The
referee brings them together and lectures them on fair play. Meanwhile the
contestants simply stare at each other and neither blinks. Both display
strength. In a teaching
situation it is natural to blink, if only to lubricate your eyes from time to
time. However when you are issuing an order that you expect to be obeyed
refraining from blinking will underline the seriousness of your communiqué and
the fact that you speak from a position of authority. Think about the end of
class when you give homework for the next day or during one of the pauses you
use to regain group attention. On these occasions not blinking will send a
strong supporting non-verbal message that you mean what you say. Visual
Instructions An added
technique to focus attention at the outset or during the lesson is to have
visual content displayed on-screen or on the board. You can direct class
attention to this backup information at any point in the teaching hour and so
have all eyes looking at the same place. Before you
begin the lesson take a moment to jot up a shorthand overview of the content so
that when you start speaking the class already has some information about what
you are going to say. These visual cues also help those who get lost during the
explanations retrieve the thread of your thinking. The same is
true during the lesson. When you see attention waning you can pause and
indicate the board information to regroup pupils' attention using the visuals
coordinated with a hand gesture. Notice that
you are also doubling input by simultaneously showing visual content and
speaking about it. Chunk! Davis Sousa, an
educationalist who apples neuroscience to teaching, describes the
scientifically recognised effect of primacy and recency as follows “During a learning episode,
we remember best that which comes first, second best that which comes last, and
least that which comes just past the middle.” From a management point of view
this suggests that if we are to maintain high attention by ensuring that the
group is able to follow the lesson as well as memorise it optimally then
teachers are advised to organise the input in as many beginnings and ends as
possible. The material you are reading at present is set up in chapters,
subsections and paragraphs so that you receive the information in short bursts
which introduce, briefly describe then finalise the points. You can decide
whether or not this presentation of the content maintains your attention as
well as making the ideas memorable. Say a
number We are all
mesmerised by numbers. Possibly that is why politicians use statistics so
often. Just saying a percentage makes our argument appear so much more potent
and believable. We somehow perceive quantity as the equivalent of truth. You may have
heard speakers initiate a conference or their side of the argument by stating
that they have three things to say. This is a smart way of telling listeners
that the intervention will be finite and encourages them to wait for the last
point. Teachers can use this device
to keep their pupils on track. Announce that you are going to talk about x
number of points (which are visually pre-displayed on the board). To help
retain attention you gesture to each location as you finish one idea and go on
to another, thus effectively starting anew. During the course of the lesson you
can repeat this strategy to revive the group's attention by quickly reviewing
what has been covered and what is to come. Tell a
story As mentioned
above, the brain craves wholeness. That may be the reason why we all find
stories so attractive. They bring comfort in a chaotic world and confer a
meaning to it through the very structure of the narrative. Stories make sense. The suggestion here is not that teachers should simply entertain their pupils but that edutainment through story-telling can be a powerful force for learning. If you can link a narrative to your content it brings it to life and makes it memorable. This is why you will find stories in italics in this book. You can judge whether they help your understanding and fix content in your memory. |