Visible learning-attention and perception

John Hattie and Gregory Yates' book, Visible Learning and the Science of How we Learn, ends with a section called "Know Thyself." He shares how important it is for people to be self-aware in order to learn. A few standout points center on perception and attention.

"As you become skilled, your perception changes, and you cannot appreciate how inherently difficult a task is for others" (p. 235). As teachers it is important to keep in mind what a challenging thing we are asking of students- learning new things, modifying schema, reaching beyond their life experiences to untried territory. My sister had a math professor who was known for showing the first few steps of a problem and then saying, "and thus it is intuitively obvious the answer is …" The problem was that the answer was not intuitively obvious to the group. We often move too fast for our students, not giving them the processing and thought time they need to absorb material. We are driven by a pacing guide, not by learning.

Inattentional blindness- missing things right in front of your face. The more we are focused on one thing, the less we notice others. This is, in part, why cell phones are so bad for driving. Diving our attention, even with hands free mechanisms, makes us poorer drivers. Simons and Chabris explored this phenomenon with the invisible gorilla test- people were asked to watch a video and then answer questions. when they were asked to complete a task about the video, their ability to notice other details significantly was reduced. Our students think they can listen to music, watch videos and/or use social media without it impacting their ability to learn material. Much research contradicts this idea. Perhaps the videos Simons has posted could be used to showcase to students how their divided attention impairs their ability to notice and learn.

When I was in junior high I had a teacher write two words on the chalkboard- yes I am dating myself- "PAY ATTENTION." He then had us brainstorm what each word meant and recorded our responses. Ultimately he drew from us that to pay attention we had to give up something of value- the ability to do other things- and focus on what was at hand. That lesson has stayed with me all these years because of its powerful implications. Students need to learn that paying attention means just that- they need to focus on something and give up attending to others. Hattie and Yates point out "Attention is not in itself such an automatic process as you might presume. To make it work, it has to be activated, and if not the opportunity to learn slips past" (p. 286). When we fail to do this, inattentional blindness inhibits our ability to learn effectively. While some students come to us with great attentional skills, many need to be taught how to attend.

This book is loaded with lots of research. A good broad scoped book that could easily be used in its entirely or in part to focus a PLC for a variety of teachers.