Attention Spans in the Adult
While this course claims that the average attention span is 15 to 18 minutes, I have some different information to offer.
In another life, I was an executive at Presentation Technologies in Sunnyvale, Calif. We manufactured film recorders (in the days before LCD and DLP projectors) and participated actively in the corporate presentation world.
Our research, developed from our own research and input from Psychologists and Anthropologists indicated the average adult attention span per topic in a lecture situation was in the 8 to 15 second range.
POINT: make your point quick. The human mind is full of a considerable amount of other things, boy and girl friends, problems at home, problems at work, financial problems, etc etc.
Raul,
I am sure you are going to like the results you get from your students with your mini-lecture approach. They are going to be more engaged as well as enjoy the activities you use to help them apply the content that has just been covered.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I did not know that the learning span for an adult is short. From now on I think I will taylor my lectures in several steps. I don't think I will be lecturing for two hours and only two ten minute breaks.
Megan,
A point about attention span of students can be made as a result of the gold fish study. According to research a gold fish has an attention span of 2 seconds (how this was determined I really don't know). So each time the fish swims by the side of the bowl what it sees is new to it because it has forgotten it was there a few seconds before. When I look into the faces of my students I think of the gold fish because their blank stares make me think they have never been in the class before. Long way to get at offer change of pace and variety in delivery and the gold fish as well as the students will be engaged.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
This point about research on attention span being significantly less than the attention span in which this course provides is fascinating. From experience, I agree with your point about attention span being very minimal. I have noticed when lecturing that students begin to look away from me when I am discussing an example of a topic for an extended period of time. I have never timed this, but it seems around the 20 second range.
Charlene,
Like your thought process and the fact that you are student centered. Technology is only a tool through which a human being interacts. The core of teaching still remains with the teacher and how he/she earns the respect of the students and helps them move toward their career goals.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I like all of these comments as I will start in the dental hygiene clinic next week and appreciate these thoughts. I'm sure it will be a balancing act for me as well. I feel like everyone is rushing around in the world of technology so I hope to allow students to take a deep breath and think!
John,
I appreciate your concern for me as a classroom teacher. I teach from 4 until 10 pm. My students have worked all day, are tired and I have 6 hours to keep them engaged. It is a challenge but something I look forward to because I get to try all kinds of different strategies to keep the awake and moving forward in the course. At the end of the class session I am worn out because I have expended a lot energy doing a lot of different activities. The end result though are satisfied students and this makes it all worth while.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
The 15-18 min claim seems so accurate ,even to someone as new to this as I am.I am a clinical instructor in the Hospital setting.A group of 4 or 5 is what I am assigned. We meet 2 or 3 days a week for 10 weeks.I have had two groups.
Our clinical days consist of patient care (scheduled and responding to emergencies/new starts).In between all this I do impromptu lectures/demos.The shorter these are the greater the interest level/retention.
I am so grateful I don't have to go into a classroom ,with a large # of students,and keep thier interest for three or four hours.God help the classroom instructors.
Roy:
I have only been teaching for a month, but I have already noticed this problem as well. I have a wide mix of students in my classes. I teach a grandmother in one of them, and she requires MUCH slower moving, but the rest of the class tends to get frustrated with that, and I lose them.
I've been trying to figure out a way to strike a balance between too slow and fast, and so far, I am still looking.
Roy,
Yes, the balancing act is tough. I use a lot of learning group activities where I blend the generations to help them to learn to respect and help each other to be successful.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Don,
Wow! Didn't know that the attention span was that short. No wonder we are hearing so much about the lack of student engaged. You are dead on with your comment about the need to make your point quickly. Too many distractions and too much information. Makes our job even more challenging. Thanks for sharing this information and research with us.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
In the 12 years I've been teaching, I have noticed that most young Adults have grown up in the Video World. Everything is short and fast. The main problem is the older adults, the one's who grew up reading books, are unable to keep up as they like to think about what they are hearing. Trying to balance both, while being one of the "Reader's" is very difficult.
