A thoughtfully designed classroom—and lesson—should always take into account the known limits of the student brain, says developmental psychologist Karrie Godwin.
At some point during the lesson, it was clear that students weren’t paying attention. Some looked past the teacher at the colorful posters lining the wall; others squirmed in their seats, fiddled with their pencils, or stared off into the distance. Only a few had eyes on the teacher.
Over the last decade, researcher Karrie Godwin has painstakingly gathered, catalogued, and analyzed real-classroom moments just like these. The objective of this professor of developmental psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, was to determine how the design of classrooms and structure of lessons shape student attention, with an eye toward understanding precisely when—and why—student attention begins to drift. Read more here.
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