Improving Student Engagement

A big part of STEM education is getting students to apply science, math, engineering, and technology concepts to actual problem-solving activities. STEM projects, like robot building and mini hackathons, can foster an engaged classroom through the more active and collaborative nature of these exercises.

But activities and experiments can be time and resource intensive. They also don’t work for every lesson and subject, whether within or apart from STEM fields. In these cases, getting students to engage and pay attention in class can be a constant challenge for any educator.

Why is lack of attention in class such a common problem? Is there anything that can be done to get more students paying attention and engaging with their lessons?

What Prevents Students From Paying Attention?

Statistics for the average attention span by age usually show that the older one gets, the more their capacity for paying attention increases. For example, a preschooler will be able to focus for 6 to 12 minutes, which gradually increases to 30 to 50 minutes by the time they reach high school.

However, attention spans can be difficult to accurately gauge and track for a lot of reasons. Not only do attention spans vary greatly from one person to the next, in one situation to the next, but digital technology has been a very recent and major disruptor to how humans focus.

Scientists are still working to understand just how much the internet— and specific facets like social media—have changed the way we absorb and process information. Technological changes aside, numerous studies have sought for answers on why students go off track.

Stress, anxiety, boredom, lack of motivation, and a poor understanding of prerequisite material are some of the more common issues that interfere with individual focus.

Overall, an instructional approach that’s directed to the whole class, with fewer opportunities for participation or interaction, that continues for intervals or segments that are longer than 10 minutes, all lead to disengagement for students of any age. @ READ MORE magoda