Many teachers struggle with learners with attention deficits: Students who cannot comprehend what is taught at all. Are they foolish? Not at all. Can they understand what’s taught? Very possible. Sometimes understanding concepts can be as easy as ABC quite literally. This cuts across the homes, learners and teachers.
Its imperative of me to say good learning results from good attention skills. The learner has to come to a situation whereby they can sit for forty minutes, one hour, and get the content being taught. They have to put to use skills like summary writing, note taking, skimming, recalling, and note making, among other skills to synthesis and paraphrase the learnt content. During lessons, they can employ simple techniques like leaning forward, avoiding distractors like friends who are noisy and disturbing as they make short notes of the ongoing lessons.
They can make notes as they paraphrase in very short sentences to simply capture the main content of the message contained therein. This includes seeking clarifications and asking questions at the end of the class or presentation. It is encouraged of them to research more and do questions on the topic covered at the end of the day.
After reading the content or after the class, look for topical questions on the learnt topic. This will not only cement the content but make it very clear as you dig deep on areas you may still need to make clear. In the course of your extra hours try to personalize your reading content. Use own example and summaries which will make the content memorable. Use mnemonics, abbreviations, songs, teacher’s dress, drawings or any other technique that will personally make you remember the content.
Having said that, there are factors that learners go through that inhibit their concentration and attention in school and class in particular.
Poor attention skills
Most of these students ignore writing skills. These skills contribute to your concentration a great deal. Therefore, next time you sit in a lecture hall or class do an analysis of yourself:
- Have I gone to the toilet to relieve myself?
- Do I have writing materials with me?
- Am I seated upright?
- Am I making noise or seated next to a very noisy person?
- Am I using writing skills I know in making short notes?
- Am I showing interest in the topic and discussion by asking questions?
Internal factors
Most learners struggle with internal factors while in class, from being worried of school fees, having family conflicts, issues in school, boyfriend/girlfriend distractions, and so on. Such make listening attentively difficult since their minds will be engaged elsewhere and not in the present and now. The best the learner can do is do a self-analysis of these issues and ask self:
- What is the issues(s) affecting my concentration?
- Can I change the situation?
- What should I do?
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The answers to these questions will make the learners do some self-discovery as the make up for lost time and start concentrating in their studies and build interest on the same. For instance, the boyfriend/girlfriend concern can be finished by the learner putting an end to it since they are not ready for the demands of serious relationships and its repercussions. The best they can have are just classmates and peer friends, nothing much.
Some family conflict from the holidays may still be in his/her mind when school reopens. Its important that parents protect children from such mental torture that domestic violence may bring by solving issues in an amicable way and making sure the child’s welfare is of primary concern. The teachers should also protect the learner from stigmatization and offer guidance where necessary. The learner has to mature gradually in learning mechanisms of how to deal with stress through the guidance and counselling programmes, spiritual programmes or sharing with a good friend or mentor for sound advice.
Once the inner person is taken care of, the outer person is well taken care of. Physical distractions like noisy can be corrected.
It also calls for the learning facilitator, in this case the teacher, to employ multiple ways of content delivery and involve the learner as much as possible. This will intrigue the learner as their interest is always intrigued not knowing what would come next. Having tried the various methods, why not call aside the ones with trouble comprehending to get their feedback on which ones worked best for them?
You might find their responses priceless as they get the little light to make their path bright.
Let’s tackle the attention deficit by tackling the issues addressed. Learning would be fun and not cumbersome and heavy. Learning something can still be as easy ABC.
By Mike Ochieng Odhiambo
The writer is an educator, public speaker, chaplain and writer. mikeochieng11@gmail.com
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