Teaching in an increasingly distracted world is challenging.
If you’ve taught in any context lately you know what I mean – students peeking
at their laptops or eying their mobile phones under the table. For that matter,
step into any business meeting and you’re likely to see the same thing.
So, if multitasking is the new normal, what can we as
teachers or meeting facilitators do about it? I would offer the following two tips:
Design for Maximum
Engagement
Whenever students have skin in the game, they focus. In my experience, the best way to engage
students is to give them a job to do and a time limit to get it done.
For example, quite often during training programs we place
learners in simulations that replicate real life. They have time to figure out
a problem, and the culminating event is a meeting where they need to meet
certain goals. They might need to report on research they’ve done, provide a
solution to a problem or even just work to build a business relationship.
These role plays and the simulations that surround them not
only are the most popular with students, but they are the most effective ways
to learn. They’re hands-on. They’re often stressful. Ideally they’re
sufficiently intense. They’re real-life. Students love them. If designed well and facilitated
correctly, there’s simply no time for distractions.
Training Your Brain
In an issue of Harvard Business Review from January 2012,
Paul Hammerness M.D. and Margaret Moore, CEO of Wellcoaches Corporation,
address the issue of multitasking in general. They propose three ways to help
your brain learn to ignore distractions and ultimately improve your focus.
Tame Your Frenzy
Hammerness and Moore say that negative emotions sap your
brain’s focus while positive emotions improve it. They recommend paying close
attention to your emotions during the day (for example, you can take a 2-minute
emotion check at www.positivityratio.com).
By cultivating positive emotions each day through exercise, meditation or
sleeping well, you improve your ability to focus.
The authors also suggest adding positive discussion topics
and humor – whether you’re in class or a meeting – to boost everyone’s brain
function.
Apply the Brakes
Distractions are not just from mobile devices. They’re
everywhere – from sounds, sights, and random thoughts of the past or about the
future. Hammerness and Moore say the best way to keep focus is to use the ABC
method as your brain’s brake pedal.
- Become Aware of your options – either stop what you’re doing and address the distraction or choose to let it go.
- Breathe deeply and consider your options
- Choose thoughtfully – Do I stop or move forward?
Shift Sets
The authors say that sometimes shifting your focus to a
whole new task helps. Go for a walk, climb a set of stairs, stretch out. These
can all help you refocus, meanwhile your brain many times keeps cranking and
new ideas often emerge when you least expect.
So, whether you’re teaching a class or running a meeting,
make sure to build in breaks. Make sure there are some physical elements to
help keep everyone’s brain fresh and focused.
Design and
Instruction Together
To be effective, the design of a learning experience needs
to work hand-in-hand with the facilitator. If the design has engaging,
action-based tasks and the facilitator is vigilant in monitoring the students,
asking them good questions and helping them stay on task, then the results are likely
going to be exceptional.
There’s no doubt that bad learning designs make it hard for
teachers to keep focus in class. But just the same, teachers who fall in love
with the lecture and talk to hear the sound of their own voice make the
classroom a place rife with distraction.
In these types of classrooms or meetings, by checking their
phones, daydreaming or staring out the window, people are doing anything they
can just to stay awake.
It’s hard to blame them, but perhaps by using the techniques
above it’s possible to work together to push back and overcome distractions.
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