Chapter 3 discusses attention and consciousness. Attention is defined as the mental activity that allows us to absorb a finite amount of information from our senses and memory. It includes different attention processes such as divided attention and selective attention. Consciousness includes people's perceptions about the world an our thoughts, images and feelings.
When reading about orienting attention and the attention required for visual search, I related this to my experience with my husbands grandmother. She had suffered a stroke, the doctors felt she had actually probably had several smaller strokes too, but she experienced the the parietal damage they mention in the text. She could not see food on the right side of her plate. My mother in law cared for her for a long time and she would have to help her with meals because of this.
I am not sure if there is anything I am unclear on, as the reading was very interesting. Perhaps offering some additional information on ADD students would have been helpful in this context. Maybe offering information on the brain processes of students with ADD and how to work best within their abilities.
I apply this knowledge in my own work in that when I am focused on school work, I cannot divert my attention to something else and produce quality work. (Like trying to do homework on a snow day when everyone is home!) The same holds true for my son when he is doing his homework - no tv and no video games on while doing homework because they divided his attention from the task at hand.
The text offers several resources and studies to provide validity to the information. The amount of research on the brain suggests well studied subject, although I believe there is still much to learn. I once read somewhere that we only use a fraction of our brain capability. And we all know how difficult it can be to multi-task....no we have science to back it up.
The information on attention and consciousness is important in that we should have an understanding on these processes to better serve students in the classroom. It is also important to understand how we as individuals process stimuli to further our own education too.
I would use this information when teaching to better understand the needs of students who struggle with ADD. Trying to understand what could be happening in their brains during instruction and how to best meet their learning needs.
Again, I am not certain about a response to the final question regarding accomplishing the same thing in a faster or cheaper way. In relation to scientific research and understanding the brain, I think it is important to continue learning all that we can.
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Jenn,
ReplyDeleteI too found myself wondering about the ADD students. In my case I have one particular student that seems to have no attention span at all. I am wondering if could be related to the lack of serial processing. If a student can't attain the ability to focus on one object at a time would this lead to the inadequacies in all areas of attention? I have struggled to find alternative approaches and strategies to use with these students and I have not found much. A psychologists from our district is having use a portable folding screen that goes on a student desk in an attempt to help them focus on their work. I have yet to see the benefits of this.
What I would like to know is how to help students with ADD/ADHD focus more. This questions seems so common. The example you gave about trying to work while everyone is home on a snow day was interesting because I also am home during a snow day working, but the house is too quiet. I have to have the tv while I type for some background noise. For some reason this helps me with the ability to sit in one spot and work for a while. When it's quiet I get up and more around constantly. Any idea why this is? I realize most people don't work this way, as you gave the example of your son. When reading, distraction are especially hazardous. Pages go by and no information is retained. The text discusses blindsight and those who have had a stroke. It seems like you've had some first hand experience with this that probably make it easier for you to understand. I would imagine knowing someone who has had such a problem would be the best way to learn about it, not that we want anyone to have to suffer the consequences.
ReplyDeleteI would also like additional information on ADD students.
ReplyDeleteYour comments on multi-tasking made me think about how I can get doing too many projects that I sometimes feel I never get any completed. If I just let myself think about and do what I feel at he time, I jump from this to that and less gets done. If I take the time to write out what I need to do or get, I try to mark them off thus accomplishing one (or 2) at a time. Maybe that is why telling students the objectives for the day's lesson might be more helpful than I thought. If they can check off each activity for the day, then maybe they can focus on each activity more fully?
When I was in a classroom environment, I would identify our objectives on the board. This seemed to give students a good indication of what to expect and it helped keep me focused as well. I like the idea of a take away message or two as well. Having students identify one or two major messages in the lesson. This could serve as a sort of barometer for the objectives and help summarize our time together. In health class this is especially useful, because we get so little time compared to other subjects.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments.