The Attention Lens

Hey 👋

Hope your Thursday is cruising. It’s time to rip open a new snack series on attention and learning…

Big idea 🍉

Teaching is complex. There are various ways we can think about it, some more useful than others.

For example, we often refer to teaching as the process of catalysing learning. However, the concept of ‘learning’ can be unhelpfully vague. What exactly does it look like? What do students actually do?

Over the years, I’ve come to realise that a more tangible and precise and useful way to view learning is as the process of paying attention to and thinking about something.

This is partly because attention and thinking are the mechanisms by which learning happens. If our students don’t pay attention to something, they won’t end up learning about it. Attention is the steely gatekeeper of learning.

Viewed this way, teaching is largely about orchestrating attention... about guiding our students to focus on the right things at the right times. Because what our students attend to is what they end up learning.

This ‘attention lens’ can also help us gain insight into some of the less visible dynamics of the classroom, such as:

• Why distractions are such a big deal (they leave an attentional wake).

• Why routines are so useful for learning (they redeploy attention).

• Why norms have such sway in school (attention is socially contagious).

It also creates the basis for more precise and streamlined planning, by prompting us to consider questions such as:

• What should our students be paying attention to and thinking about at each moment during the lesson?

• What can we get them to do to catalyse this?

In short, if you really want to see teaching and learning in 3D, don’t forget to put on your attention goggles first. (omg I’m so sorry that’s the worst analogy ever)

🎓 For more, check out this excellent paper by a very smart person on what learning is and how we might catalyse it.

Summary

• The best way to think about teaching is as the process of getting students to pay attention to and think about something.

• This lens helps us better understand the underlying mechanics of our work.

• And prompts us to plan with more precision.

Little updates 🥕

• Editorial on human-written scientific articles → argues that writing is best viewed as structured thinking (& warns of outsourcing writing to AI).

• Study on Japanese primary schools class-sizes → finds smaller classes can boost learning, especially with higher-achieving or more female classmates.

• Paper testing step-by-step examples with recall prompts → finds they boost memory and problem-solving a week later, suggesting better learning.

• Scoping review of 100+ studies on reading aloud → highlights evidence-based practices that can strengthen children’s early language development.

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