As covered in the first article in this series, Principles of Effective Teaching, reliability engineers, FMEA team leaders, and other quality and reliability professionals are often called upon to teach the principles of reliability or FMEA. Whether you are a student who wants to enhance your learning experience, an instructor who wants to improve teaching results, or an engineer who wishes to convey knowledge to another person, this series will offer practical knowledge and advice.

The Importance of Managing Attention

“Attention is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought.”  William James

Whether you are conveying knowledge to one person or teaching a class, there is no more important factor than getting and maintaining the attention of the other person. Managing attention is a skill that can be learned.

Let’s begin with definitions

“Attention is the act or state of applying the mind to something.” (Merriam Webster)

It is “the concentration of awareness on some phenomenon to the exclusion of other stimuli.” (Encyclopedia Britannica)

“Attention can be described as the allocation of limited cognitive processing resources.” (book Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications, by John R. Anderson)

Why is managing attention important?

The short answer is, if you don’t gain and keep the attention of the person or people you are teaching, you will not successfully transfer knowledge. The student must open their mind to the information you are conveying in order to learn. In other words, your information must be more compelling, more persuasive, than the environmental distractions in the room, or the personal distractions in the mind of the student.

A word on distractions

“Your results are the product of either personal focus or personal distractions. The choice is yours.” John Di Lemme

We live in an age of excess chatter and distraction. The antidote to distraction is focus. Focus is an action verb meaning to cause to be concentrated. It can be practiced and learned, and is well worth the effort.

As an instructor you need to focus your message and keep it simple and relevant. You also need to create an environment for learning that enables students to maintain focus on the information being taught.

As a student, you should practice focusing and paying attention, and keep potential distractions away from the classroom.

This means that students should not be “multi-tasking” or using their computers in any way other than learning the course material. Students must focus on what is being taught.

As an instructor, this means you have to keep the attention of students by employing certain strategies, covered below.

What strategies can instructor use to manage student attention?

There are many strategies that can be used to get and keep student attention. I’ll cover three in this article.

1. Personal passion and genuine interest

Question: Who would you rather have teach you, someone who is genuinely interested in what they are teaching or someone who comes across as bored or disinterested? Why?

Personal passion and genuine interest play an important role in ensuring your message is well received by listeners.

Ask yourself, what interests you most about the subject you are teaching? What excites you? When you are preparing for the class or module, tap into your personal passion for the subject you are teaching.

I’ll explore this principle further in a separate article in the series.

2. Maintaining a classroom environment that is distraction free

This is becoming more and more important, as the impact of social media and other factors make some people more vulnerable to distractions.

If you are teaching remotely, this means students should be encouraged to keep their videos on, and not get involved in other tasks or meetings. If you are teaching in person, you should select a teaching location that minimizes distractions. Students should be encouraged to attend all sessions without other tasks or meetings competing for their attention.

3. There are a set of strategies concerning presentation content, exercises, and delivery

The content needs to be appropriate for the audience, and very targeted and simple (not busy). In my teaching, I intersperse exercises throughout the training, amounting to at least 60% of total class time in dialog and exercises. When addressing students, look them in the eye and make sure your words are easily understood. Vary your voice inflection, so you don’t sound boring or disinterested.

Summary

Getting and keeping the attention of your students will enable the opportunity for learning to occur. Using proven strategies to minimize distractions and focus attention is essential to transferring knowledge.

Tip:

Students will pay attention and learn more from a person who speaks from their heart.

Next article

The next article in the series explores more deeply the important role of personal passion and interest in conveying training material.