Student Attention: Getting and Maintaining It

Gaining and maintaining student attention is critical to learning and effective classroom management. Teacher practices that create a safe and supportive learning environment for all students lay the foundation for advancing student learning. This module serves as a foundational resource for beginning teachers, those working in new environments, or experienced teachers seeking to refine or refresh specific elements of their classroom management practice. They can be used to individually reflect on and refine one’s own practice, or as shared resources to support mentoring and other collaborative and whole-school approaches to improving classroom management. Estimated time to complete 90-120 minutes.

This module is related to NEE Indicator 5.1, 5.2

At the end of this module, participants will be able to:

1. Gain an understanding of the importance of getting student attention

2. Describe why student attention is important to students and instruction

3. Describe what common attention pitfalls look like in the classroom and how to prevent them

4. Explain the connections between effective student attention methods and learning

5. Identify research-based components of effective learning environments in order to create engaging classroom spaces that focus on student learning

Review the activities below.

	1. Why Is Student Attention Important and What Is It?
	2. How Do We Create Learning Spaces for Gaining Student Attention in the Classroom Through Practices and Norms?
	3. What Are the Strategies for Development, Rehearsal, Practice, and Peer Review/Observation when Implementing Student Attention Techniques?

University of Salford Manchester: 2015 Clever Classrooms (PDF)