1. There are three different ways to pay attention: selective (focusing on one thing), divided (dividing your attention into several things), and saccadic eye movements (moving our eyes to follow what we are looking at). Consciousness is related to attention because sometimes we are not giving our full attention to a task we are doing, but we are still consciously processing what we are doing.
2. It is difficult to learn something new if I have to focus my attention on several different things at one time. When we focus our attention on something, we can use top-down or bottom-up processing.
3. I am still having a difficult time with the last chapter and I think that is carrying over to this chapter. I understand this chapter much better, but to compare it to the last was difficult. I would like to know more about consciousness.
4. Having this information on attention has helped me realize how hard it is for students to give their attention to more than one thing at a time when they are trying to learn. I always wondered why some teachers were so stern about students being quiet and having their eyes on them when they were talking, but now I know that it truly does help them focus on the discussion at hand.
5. The story about the air traffic controller who was dividing his attention too many ways causing the planes to crash really helped me to understand divided attention. I also enjoyed how the author put in current information about cell phone users and driving.
6. It is important to educators so we can find out how to really help students focus in on what we are trying to teach them. It also helps with testing, especially the part about the present/absent features. I know that if I give my students a test and I ask them to tell me which one is not part of the group, that the difficulty of the question is harder.
7. I think this would help with all of my students, but especially for my students that have difficulty focusing on the lesson. I need to make sure I can figure out all the other things that student is giving their attention to and remove it during the lesson times. (Sounds like a duh statement haha).
8. Not really sure what to say to this question?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I was also interested in the mobile phone research. I have a teenager and I am strict about her stopping to use her phone than use it while driving. This research says - I'm not that overprotective after all. And, on the lines of car crashes, I was backing out of my garage when my daughter started asking me questions and because my attention was divided, I hit her dads truck. UGH...
ReplyDeleteYeah Teresa, you said it best. It must be difficult for young students to focus on more than one stimulus at a time. I am one of those who will miss my turn because I am talking on the phone or to someone in the car. I am an adult, so you can imagine the difficulty for a youngster. The chapter has made me more aware of the attention students are giving the lesson in class.
ReplyDelete