The Master Teacher Blog

We hear a lot about the practices we should use to ensure learning for our students. Of course, we want our students to be successful and our instruction to make a positive impact. However, simply pulling a strategy “off the shelf” or defaulting to the most recently read article or staff development session topic may not generate the results we seek.  

Experienced educators know that generic approaches and widely hailed strategies do not necessarily work with all students, including ours. We often need a guide or process to sort among potential approaches and practices to find the learning experience we can design that will have the greatest positive impact on our students’ learning.  

Fortunately, we can follow a path to survey possibilities, evaluate options, and ultimately settle on the instructional practices that hold the greatest potential for our students. We might start broadly, then narrow our consideration based on our context, and finally, match the strategy or practice we consider with the specific needs and readiness of a group of students or even a single student.   

We can begin with a set of practices commonly known as best practices. Best practices are typically widely employed. They have been found to be effective by one or more credible research studies. They are considered consistent with dominant thought about learning and teaching, and they have generally been shown to work with many students in a variety of circumstances. However, student needs and learning readiness vary. A single best practice will not work with every student or in every context. For example, applying a best practice that has been shown to be effective with students who possess extensive background knowledge may not be even remotely effective with students who are unfamiliar with the content and concepts involved. Highly motivated students might respond to a certain best practice while more reluctant and distracted learners will not. We might think of best practices as a menu of options to consider, but we need to be cautious about blindly adopting a practice just because a specific research study, or even multiple studies, found them to be useful, or just because other educators are using it. 

A second set of practices and level of consideration might be thought of as promising practices. We can filter promising practices from best practices for the types of learners, learning challenges, and learning contexts within which they will work. Promising practices are good options when they have a solid base of credibility with the type of students we are teaching. However, even promising practices require our careful examination. They are more tailored than best practices, but they often still lack a key feature, in that they may not match the learning specific needs and readiness of our learners. Their utility still depends on matching what we know about our learners and our instructional and learning goals.  

This second level of sifting takes us to a third and even more powerful set of practices: effective practices. Effective practices go one step further to consider the learner. Best practices and promising practices become effective practices when they are matched to the learning readiness of the student or students with whom we are working. The nexus of learner and practice determines what will generate high-leverage learning.  

Of course, there are times when what has been considered best practice and even promising practice will not be what our students need and will not generate the learning we seek. These are times when we may need to reverse the process and ask ourselves—and even our students—what may work in this circumstance and then match, modify, or invent the approach that will create the most successful learning experience. We can still benefit from reviewing best practices and promising practices to ensure that we have considered a broad array of options, of course, but customization may be the key to finding success.   

Without question, best practices and promising practices deserve a place in our instructional design considerations. However, neither will guarantee success unless they match the needs and learning readiness of our unique students.  

As much as we might want to believe otherwise, grades as they are typically employed are not very effective learning motivators. Certainly, they can be used to get students to do more work, avoid embarrassment, sidestep punishment, and achieve status—but they can also cause students to find shortcuts to avoid true learning. In common practice, grades operate mostly as an extrinsic motivator, and unfortunately, the more grades are used to motivate, the less effective they become.  

Grades too often become the goal of learning rather than a reflection of learning. We even say things like “Work hard so that you get a good grade!” when we should be encouraging students to work hard so that they learn. When they do, their grades will generally take care of themselves. 

Nevertheless, grades are deeply embedded in the life and culture of most schools. As much as we might sometimes like to ignore or abandon them, grades remain a part of our reality. The question is, are there ways we can position grades and our grading practices to motivate students and encourage them to focus on learning? Here are five strategies to consider.  

First, we can support and build motivation when we grade against clear criteria or rubrics (criterion-referenced assessments) and not other students (norm-referenced assessments). The best motivation for improvement comes when students compete with their own past performance. Motivation grows when students see next steps and the path to success. Grading that compares a student’s performance to the performance of other students can undermine motivation for those who might believe they may not measure up or cannot catch up. Further, grading against the performance of other students does not tell students whether they have learned what was intended, just how they did relative to other students.  

Second, we might emphasize learning and progress in addition to performance. Students typically become more motivated when they can see and track their progress. We might collect data regarding what students know at the beginning of a learning and teaching cycle in order to gain an understanding of their prior knowledge and create a baseline to track future progress. We need to avoid grading what students know before they are asked to learn. Data from initial work can be compared to performance at the end of a unit or learning cycle to document learning progress. As a result, we have access to what knowledge students have gained as we consider assigning grades, not just what they know and may already knew prior to the learning and teaching cycle. 

Third, and related, we can delay the assignment of grades as long as possible. Multiple research studies have documented the motivational power of timely, specific, objective, actionable feedback, especially when it is not attached to a grade. Unfortunately, when grades are attached to feedback, they tend to overshadow the information, and feedback is ignored. Further, students often see assignment of a grade as a sign that learning is complete, and they no longer focus on learning effort. 

Fourth, we might give students opportunities to have their best work considered for grading. The purpose of grades is to reflect what students have learned, so it makes sense to consider the work that best represents their learning. As examples, when students submit multiple assignments, complete multiple assessments, or create multiple products, we might allow them to choose the pieces of evidence that best represent their learning to be evaluated for grading. Another option is to allow students to have a lowest score dropped to avoid them giving up if they did poorly on a single task or assessment. Limited and targeted retakes or resubmissions can also motivate students to keep learning.  

Fifth, if we choose to award extra credit, we can award credit for extra learning. The practice of awarding extra credit for actions unrelated to learning may compel students to work toward a higher grade, but it does little, if anything, to move learning forward. On the other hand, we can recognize additional learning. As examples, students might choose to pursue greater understanding of a concept, dig deeper into a topic, or explore an implication associated with what we have been teaching. The opportunity to receive credit for additional learning and have their work reflected in a grade can be a learning motivator.  

It is true that over-emphasis on grades can corrupt learning. However, with deployment of thoughtful grading practices, we can minimize the distraction grades can present and build motivation for students to learn.  

We might not think much about tapping our students’ brain chemicals to support learning. Yet, those chemicals play an important role and thus are worthy of our attention. Naturally produced by the brain, these chemicals serve a variety of purposes, from making us alert and keeping us safe to calming our nerves and helping us to feel pleasure.

Dopamine is one of these brain-produced chemicals, found in the pleasure and reward center of the brain. Consequently, it can play a particularly helpful role in learning. Specifically, researchers have found that dopamine can have a positive impact on learning in three ways.

First, dopamine increases motivation. Dopamine has the effect of increasing the desire to repeat behaviors that generate feelings of pleasure, accomplishment, and reward. Dopamine is the ultimate positive reinforcement, and, equally important, it can be tapped repeatedly without losing its impact. The more we experience dopamine, the more likely we are to seek it.

Second, dopamine increases engagement and lengthens attention spans. Consequently, it increases learning efficiency and leads to success with fewer unsuccessful attempts. Dopamine also increases spatial learning, helping us to feel a stronger sense of context and connections.

Third, dopamine improves memory. The sensation dopamine creates increases our ability to focus. It also improves working memory, a powerful driver of academic success. Further, dopamine aids in recollection of past events and experiences, thus extending recall of what has been learned.

The bottom line: Dopamine can be a powerful force for learning.

Of course, this is a time of the school year when we are often challenged to motivate our students to focus on learning and recall what they have learned. Finding ways to tap dopamine in the brains of our students can be a key to meeting this challenge. Here are six strategies to employ.

First, we can offer students opportunities to be creative, curious, and inventive. The arts can be a great vehicle for students to express themselves. Composing, drawing, painting, performing, and designing activities are excellent stimuli for dopamine. Dopamine flows in a context of imagination and discovery.

Second, we might design learning activities that involve teamwork. Dopamine can be activated when we engage in efforts and activities that extend beyond ourselves. We often find significance and pleasure in being a part of something larger than us. Activities such as collective problem solving, service projects, and project-based learning are good examples. Experiencing human interaction and peer recognition and feeling supported can be effective generators of dopamine.

Third, we might coach students to set goals, track their progress, and celebrate accomplishments. When students feel as though they are on the right path, maintaining focus, making progress, and reaching benchmarks, dopamine can be plentiful. In fact, when we teach this skill and habit to students, we equip them with a lifelong, autonomous way to access dopamine whenever they choose.

Fourth, we can provide positive feedback, encouragement, and reassurance. Our timely, specific, positive, and actionable feedback can provide a shot a dopamine for students, especially for students who may lack confidence, have a history of learning struggles, or be prone to giving up. Of course, our feedback needs to be connected to students’ actions rather than their abilities or characteristics. Students can control their actions, such as the strategies and effort they employ, but they cannot control their natural ability or physical characteristics.

Fifth, we can activate dopamine through games, fun, and humor. We might change up some routines or inject some fun where possible. As examples, we might shift the label for learning geometry proofs to something like, “What the Logic?” or relabeling quizzes to “Show What You Know.” Starting the day with a relevant but respectful joke can break the routine and stimulate a dose of dopamine. Even finding humor in unexpected happenings and distractions can create some dopamine flow.

Sixth, we might introduce new and exciting challenges. Simulations, investigations, and explorations can be great ways to create a rush of dopamine. The key is to position the experience to be challenging enough to require effort, but not so difficult as to feel beyond reach.

Finding ways to engage students, increase learning efficiency, and extend recall of what students learn can be a constant quest. Fortunately, designing activities and employing strategies that release the flow of dopamine in our students’ brains can help us to meet this challenge, especially now.

As we near the final weeks of the school year, we might struggle to have students remain engaged in their learning. Yet, the time we have with students at this point in the year can be exceptionally rich—if they remain focused and challenged. We know our students; we have built relationships and established trust. Some of the best learning of the year should happen now. Further, if students remain focused and engaged, we can avoid many behavior challenges and distractions that often accompany this time of the year.

Fortunately, there are several strategies based in cognitive science upon which we can draw to maintain momentum and stimulate continued learning. Here are six strategies to consider and tap.

Coming attraction: What now? Often referred to as “priming questions,” we can capture students’ attention with questions that preview new learning and pique their curiosity. As examples: “How can knowing fractions help you to become rich?” Or “How can listening become a personal superpower?” The questions can also be used to define the purpose of new learning. The answer to the question becomes something to actively discover rather than information to be passively received. Questions can also be more interesting than a learning goal statement. The questions become even more useful when we pause instruction periodically and invite students to describe their evolving knowledge and understanding of the question and what it means.

Confounding: What’s this? We can break up routines by adding mystery, conflict, novelty, and surprise to capture attention, generate excitement, and pique curiosity. As examples, we might provide just enough information on a topic to pique students’ interests. We can offer a short overview without sharing too much. We might invite students to speculate, question, and imagine. We might surprise students with the arrival of an unannounced visitor with a problem or mystery for the class to solve. We might unveil a picture that invites discussion or investigation. We can allow students to “light the path” to discovery as we respond strategically to their interest, curiosity, and growing understanding.

Connecting: What’s new; what’s old? After we have introduced a new piece of content or skill and students have grasped the essentials, we can challenge them to connect their new learning to what they have already learned. For example, we might have students form small groups to discuss connections with past learning. We can provide them with a resource packet to assist their efforts. For example, we might share a syllabus, a description of past learning standards, past assignments and assessments, and other related items. After revisiting their learning and discussing connections, groups can report the connections they have identified. Meanwhile, we can monitor what may be missing and may require reteaching. Not only will students make important connections, but we will also be stimulating and extending their recall of past learning.

Consolidating: Can you teach it? One of the most effective ways to ensure students learn and retain new content is to have them teach each other. Students might be allowed to choose what aspect of new learning they would like to teach. Their instruction might be to small groups or the entire class, depending on variables such as the time available and the topics to be taught. Teaching others what they have learned generates greater purpose for learning, more focused attention, more authentic responsibility, and increased integration of what has been learned.

Contemplating: What’s your question? Having students generate questions about what they have learned is a great way to increase comprehension, consolidate learning, and extend recall. Consider having students submit questions for possible inclusion on a future learning assessment. Of course, we may need to teach how to frame a good question, including how to encourage depth of response and elaboration. While it may not be realistic to include all the questions students submit, we might commit to a set number of questions from those submitted. Beyond the learning benefits of forming assessment questions, students are often eager to respond to what they and other students have submitted.

Collecting: What do you recall? We might periodically select content that we want students to solidify in their memories. Called retrieval practice, this activity has students list everything they can recall regarding a concept, skill, or topic they studied. Students might make a list, create a mind map, or verbally discuss what they can remember. We can invite students to fill in each other’s recollection gaps. Multiple studies have shown retrieval practice to be exceptionally effective in building long-term memory and improving recall.

The final weeks of the school year can be a time of disruption and distraction—but they can also be a prime time for learning. It is a good time to tap what cognitive science has to offer to support our efforts and our students’ growth.

Much about teaching and learning feels intuitive and at least somewhat straightforward. After all, we as educators identify what we want students to learn, organize and introduce the content or skill, have students practice, and then assess whether it was learned. Yet, no single strategy works every time, with every student, or in every situation.

It is also true that not every strategy that builds learning is obvious. In fact, some of the most useful learning strategies start with and include elements that we initially might not consider or assume to be effective. Still, they can add variety, novelty, and substance to learning efforts.

We need to fill our teaching toolbox with as many options and alternatives as possible. Our students, too, need to know and have available a wide range of strategies upon which they can draw as they encounter learning challenges. Here are six learning approaches we can employ and teach our students that may at first seem counterintuitive; however, they have a strong and supportive research base, so we do not have to feel as though we are taking a risk.

First, trying before teaching. We might think that this approach could get in the way of learning, but presenting students with problems to solve or challenges to attack before teaching new skills and sharing information can have a surprisingly positive impact. While we need to be careful to not allow frustration levels to get too high or push learners to the point of giving up, struggling with unknowns, testing hypotheses, and even making guesses can prepare students for learning. The experience can stimulate students’ interest, tap their desire to succeed, build anticipation for instruction, accelerate learning, and extend recall. We might even collect questions students generate during their preview to inform our instruction and avoid repeating background knowledge that students already possess.

Second, mining mistakes. Mistakes are often seen as “must-avoids” in the learning process. Students fear that mistakes will embarrass them, count against them, or make them appear unintelligent. Yet, mistakes can be rich sources for dispelling misconceptions, untangling confusion, and identifying better strategies. However, we need to make mistakes safe, encourage analysis, and focus on learning when they occur.

Third, cherishing challenges. Many students believe that if they struggle when learning, they must not be smart. Yet, struggle is an integral part of learning. Struggle signals that what is being learned is new, not repetition of past learning. In fact, we help our students to become better learners when we design struggle into their learning. When students find learning challenging, they are more likely to focus and fully engage their brains. Consequently, they are more likely to grasp and remember what they are learning. Struggle may even lead to mistakes that can clarify what does not work or is not correct, thus inviting further investigation and building understanding.

Fourth, boosting with breaks. Taking regular breaks to focus on something other than what is being learned can feel counterintuitive. How might not studying lead to more learning? The answer is that when we have been engaged in intense learning activities and take a brief break to engage in something else such as taking a walk, listening to music, or another less mentally demanding activity, our brain continues to sort, organize, and make connections. As a result, when we return to learning, we may see things we missed, make connections we did not see, and find implications that had escaped us earlier. The good news is that breaks as short as a few minutes can be beneficial.  

Fifth, spacing strategically. Many learners assume that extended, vigorous study is the best way to learn. Yet, attempting to focus until the point of exhaustion is often counterproductive. Despite detailed notetaking, repetitive reading, and highlighting content, a significant portion is likely to be forgotten and lost. A more effective, but counterintuitive, approach is to engage in shorter periods of focused study, followed by extended time away from what is being learned. Known as distributive practice, studying followed by hours or days engaged in other activities and then returning to reengage and refresh what has been learned leads to deeper understanding and longer retention.

Sixth, helping with humor. We might think of learning as serious business that leaves no room for levity. Yet, mixing humor with learning can reduce stress, inject positive emotions, and make the experience more pleasurable—all contributors to learning success. Further, when we associate positive emotions with what we are learning, we often extend our ability to recall. Of course, we need to be careful to avoid humor that may be disrespectful or hurtful or that comes at someone’s expense.

The more strategies we can share with our students, the better prepared they will be when they encounter unique learning challenges. When students feel stuck, we want them to understand that they need a new or different strategy. It is not that they are incapable of learning.

A popular saying posits that “It’s not what you know, but who you know that matters.” The core message speaks to the importance of social capital. Of course, what you know also matters—and can be amplified by a strong social network.

Social capital refers to relationships that can provide advice, advocacy, introductions, connections, and much more to the benefit of individuals in personal, social, professional, and other areas of life. Social capital involves networks that people can tap to learn about opportunities, improve social standing, access employment, and other socially beneficial resources.

Successful people typically grow and leverage social capital to help them achieve their life goals. Healthy social networks can create access to benefits such as higher education institutions, employment opportunities, or career advancement. Social capital is the glue that binds individuals, groups, and communities in ways that foster trust, reciprocity, mutual support, and collective progress.

Of course, some students naturally build social capital due to their personality, family, and other connections. However, many students do not have such advantages. They may not even be aware of the importance of building social capital, let alone how to do it. Yet, success in today’s world and workplace is heavily influenced by it.

Our challenge is to help all students, but especially those who may not understand or have access to social capital, build and leverage this important resource. Our instruction, support, and assistance can make a life-changing difference for students who otherwise may miss opportunities and fail to build paths that can lead to lasting success. Let’s explore six strategies we can employ to help students understand and build robust, sustainable social capital.

First, we need to teach students what social capital is and how it can open doors to achieving success in life and work. We can share examples of how successful people build and use social capital. We might even invite a respected adult who is skilled in building and leveraging social capital to engage with students. The key to this step is helping students see that social capital is an important supplement to commitment, hard work, and persistence.

Second, we might give students opportunities to build and practice interpersonal skills such as listening, conversing, and other elements of emotional intelligence. Relationships are key to accumulating social capital, and interpersonal skills are crucial to building and maintaining relationships.

Third, we can encourage students to participate in extracurricular activities, volunteer, and engage in other activities that offer opportunities to form relationships and build social capital with peers who might share interests and have common goals. These activities can help students to further develop skills that are central to social capital development. Additionally, the relationships students develop with peers can lead to introductions and connections beyond their immediate group.

Fourth, we might connect students with local employers and professionals who are willing to mentor, teach, and nurture attitudes. We can encourage and support students to attend career fairs, seminars, and other professional activities to gain insights regarding career choices, gain exposure to people within various careers, and continue to build their social capital.

Fifth, we can coach students to mobilize their social capital by sharing their goals, seeking assistance, and accessing the resources of their social network. It is important to build social capital, but social capital is most useful and important when it is mobilized to create opportunities. Helping students learn how to ask for assistance with courtesy, tact, and confidence can be crucial to leveraging the social capital they build.

Sixth, we need to impress upon students the importance of sharing the social capital they have developed. Social capital thrives when it is shared as often as it is tapped. Finding ways to serve and support others not only builds social capital, but choosing to support the goals and meet the needs of others also makes social capital an even more valuable resource for everyone.

Social capital is not a replacement for learning and diligent work. However, it can position the investment students make in learning to pay dividends in expanded opportunities and rich relationships.

Misconceptions—the inaccurate or incomplete ideas or understanding of a concept, process, or phenomenon—are common in every discipline and aspect of life. We are likely familiar with common historical misconceptions such as that bloodletting can cure a variety of illnesses, the world is flat, and the sun rotates around the earth. We also experience misconceptions in the current world of teaching and learning. For example, many still believe that students have a specific learning style that drives their learning and that intelligence is assigned at birth and cannot be grown. Some students believe that highlighting text is the most effective way to retain what is read and that cramming is good way to learn. A list of possible misconceptions could extend to every area of learning and life.

Of course, some misconceptions have political associations. Some parents and community members may have concerns about the discussion of particular issues, and in some states, discussion of selected conceptions or misconceptions is not permitted. Our considerations regarding whether to address specific misconceptions need to include an awareness of community and policy sentiments and implications, their status in the adopted curriculum, and the relative importance of the concepts involved.

The question is, how can we help students to dispel misconceptions that can interfere with their learning and success in life? We know that simply telling students that they are wrong can invite resistance and lead them to choose not to listen. Instead, we need a process to help us understand where misconceptions may exist, expose students to correct information, and lead them to reexamine and shift their assumptions and beliefs to become consistent with facts and reality. Here is a five-step process to consider.

Step one: Determine where misconceptions exist. We might pretest students in areas that are susceptible to misconceptions. To do this, we can tap our own experience with students, common assumptions, frequent fallacies in the media, and often cherry-picked information to develop assessment prompts. Or we might ask students to write about their assumptions, beliefs, understandings, and other conceptions related to the topic they are about to study. Their responses are likely to contain accurate conceptions as well as any misconceptions that can guide our planning. This strategy will also permit students to see how far they have come once they complete the unit of study.

Step two: Begin with correct conceptions. We can share fact-based, credible, complete information about the topic or concept we are teaching, but we need to avoid arguing or pointing out misconceptions before we share correct information. We might support the information we share with models, graphic representations, and other visual content to clarify and verify information. Another option is to create activities and design experiences that demonstrate the correct conception for students.

Step three: Address existing misconceptions. We can use information from the preassessments to understand where students hold misconceptions. We might also provide comparisons, examples, case studies, and demonstrations to provide further clarity. Our intent is to build on the information we shared about correct conceptions in order to counter the existing assumptions and beliefs. Our purpose is to cause manageable cognitive conflict between what students have assumed or believed and new information they are encountering. However, we need to be careful not to make the misconception the sole focus. Rather, it needs to be part of the larger discussion of what is correct and why it is important. Our goal is to help students to understand why we want them to change their assumptions and beliefs.

Step four: Emphasize the importance of correct understanding. We might discuss with students how correct conceptions can help their future learning. We can contrast their new understanding with how misconceptions can create challenges and interfere with future learning and actions. Additionally, this is a key time for students to have their questions answered and to test implications of what they now know.

Step five: Protect students from backsliding. Even though students might be clear about a correct conception now, over time they can forget and fall back on previous misconceptions. We need to give students “memory tags” to recognize when they hear people state the misconception or when they may be tempted to return to the misconception. To accomplish this goal, we might have students explain how their thinking has evolved and describe their new understanding. For example, we might ask students to complete this sentence: I used to think…, but now I know… Depending on the topic and maturity of our students, we can even have students present arguments to defend their new understanding. The key is to give students experiences that are strong enough to trigger recognition when they encounter the misconception in the future.

Misconceptions are normal, common experiences in learning. They can have many sources such as mishearing information, exposure to misinformation, or making false assumptions as they try to make sense of experiences. Misconceptions are opportunities for us to correct and build understanding. However, we need to be careful not to create defensiveness and rejection before we have an opportunity to teach.

Does it seem like your students’ attention spans have shrunk? Do you wish that your students would ignore the distractions within and around them and just focus? You are not alone. The cost of dwindling focus in instructional minutes, student study time, and unaccomplished learning can be staggering. Obviously, we want to maximize the strength and length of our students’ attention spans to take full advantage of our investment in teaching and our students’ investment in learning.

Several recent studies have suggested that attention spans have grown shorter over the past few years because of technology, the pandemic, and other factors. We need to reverse that trend for our students; they need our guidance and support to meet that challenge.

A place to begin our discussion is to consider how long we might expect students to be able to pay attention. Of course, attention spans vary, but they tend to correlate with developmental stages. A basic, very simple guideline to calculate expected attention spans is to follow this equation: age multiplied by 2-5 minutes equals average concentration span. As examples, an average seven-year-old might be expected to focus for anywhere from 14-35 minutes, and a twelve-year-old might be expected to focus for 24-60 minutes.

Obviously, we want our students to be able to focus for the duration nearer the top of the formula range than the bottom. The question is, “How can we help students to increase their capacity to concentrate deeply and for an extended period of time?” Here are fifteen strategies which we can share and practice with our students.

Tend to physical factors:

• Advise students to find a location in which they feel comfortable. For example, in the classroom, we may offer options beyond sitting in a standard desk. At home or elsewhere, a location free of interruptions and noise competition can make a significant difference.
• Counsel students to consider the temperature and adjust to be comfortable. Adding a sweater or shedding a jacket can add to comfort and the ability to concentrate.
• Urge students to collect and organize in advance any resources and materials that will be necessary to complete the task or project on which they want to focus.
• Encourage students to stretch or engage in moderate exercise before attempting to concentrate to increase blood flow and their ability to focus.
• Remind students to drink plenty of water or other hydrating beverage prior to and during periods when they want to focus.

Leverage environmental factors:

• Encourage students to take brief breaks after completing a task or reaching a convenient “break point” in their work. A short walk, visit to the bathroom, trip to fill a water bottle, moment to briefly check in with friends, or other mental refocusing can refresh their energy and restore their ability to focus. Meanwhile, their brain will continue to work in the background.
• Coach students to remove immediate distractions such as technology applications and notifications that may tempt them to lose focus. Social media, especially, can be a persistent distraction. Some people find music an assist to concentration while others find it distracting, so the role and value of music often is dependent on the student.
• Suggest that when extended focus is needed, students change locations periodically. Not only can a change of environment refresh the ability to focus, but the brain also takes notice of the environment during times of focus and makes subtle connections to what is learned. As a result, learning recall can be extended.

Manage operational factors:

• Encourage students to counter mental distractions such as worries, ideas, questions, and other elements occupying their minds by spending time before starting a task to make a list of anything might be distracting them. Once the list is made, coach students to set aside those items for now and attend to them once they have finished the task before them.
• Similarly, suggest that students keep a pen and notepad or device screen open to note unrelated and distracting items that surface as they are focusing. A quick note can allow students to be confident that they will not forget while continuing to concentrate.
• Advise students to avoid multitasking. While engaging in multiple activities simultaneously may feel like efficiency, multitasking is really just task switching, and it undermines the ability to think deeply and focus clearly.
• If extended sitting creates a concentration challenge, we can suggest that students stand or even walk around while they focus.

Other strategies:

• Encourage students to set a time goal to maintain their focus. Students can gradually increase the time and extend their ability to focus as they gain experience in achieving their goals. For many students, this activity can become a personal competition to extend and track their ability to concentrate.
• When students need to focus on multiple tasks over extended time, such as studying related to a variety of subjects, suggest that they set intermediate time goals for each subject followed by brief breaks and reengagement with a different subject. The cumulative impact can be growth in the length of time students can maintain focus while also sustaining focus from one task to another.
• Coach students to overcome learning blocks and barriers as they work by asking themselves, “Is there a better strategy I can try, a better way to allocate my effort, or resource I can tap to move forward?” Rather than allow frustration to take over, students can shift their focus without sacrificing connection to the work at hand.

Focusing is a skill, and like many other skills, goal setting, practice, and gradual expansion can make a significant difference over time. With our encouragement, coaching, and reinforcement, students can regain any loss in concentration ability they may have experienced and even expand their ability to focus in ways that make success in learning and life a likely outcome.

Our brains work best when challenged—but not when overloaded. When we encounter new information or are attempting to learn new content, we need to monitor and manage the rate, complexity, and volume of what we are asking our brains to absorb, process, and store.

The amount and nature of new information we are asking our brains to manage is known as cognitive load. New information is initially stored in our working memory. Cognitive load refers to the amount of working memory required to complete a learning task. Once information is learned, it is stored in long-term memory, where we can access it in the future.

Unfortunately, our working memory has limited capacity to process information. Consider that most people can manage between five and nine items in our working memory at any time. However, we can only process between two and four items simultaneously. Even more challenging, information not used within as little as fifteen seconds is lost from memory unless later reinforced or reintroduced.

Our task is to monitor and manage the cognitive load our students experience in their working memory while learning. We need to pay attention to the pace, nature, and amount of information students must hold in their working memory and process at any time during their learning efforts. Additionally, we must avoid presenting them with too much information and risk having important information being ignored and abandoned while other, less salient elements receive attention.

Further, when students are asked to deal with large amounts of complex information, they are likely to experience frustration and growing anxiety. These and other distracting emotions increase cognitive load and can interfere with optimal brain functioning.

Our challenge is to maximize learning by managing cognitive load while helping students to focus on what matters most and what needs to be processed and moved to long-term memory. Fortunately, there are several instructional and contextual strategies we can tap to support this goal. Here are ten tools and techniques we can employ:

• Discuss the purpose and utility of what students are asked to learn. Knowing what is important—and why—can help students focus their working memory on what is crucial and needs to be stored in long-term memory.
• Focus on clear, specific, attainable goals. Students are more likely to engage and persist when they see goals within reach if they give reasonable effort.
• Develop and follow routines that support learning. Routines reduce surprises and uncertainty, thus lessening dependence on working memory and freeing space to accept and manage new information.
• Help students to make connections with what they already know. Point out and review past learning on which students can build new learning. Also, invite students to reflect on what they already know and where they can make connections.
• Break down complex information and introduce new content in small bites. Scaffold challenging content to build student learning capacity and confidence.
• Introduce information via multiple modes. Combining text, visual, and auditory input can enhance understanding and lessen the cognitive load students experience. Adding movement and other kinesthetic elements to the learning experience can be even more beneficial.
• Provide graphic organizers. Mind maps, T-charts, and other supports can help students organize new information and increase recall when information has been moved to long-term memory.
• Minimize distractions in the learning environment. Excessive noise, visual distractions, and materials unrelated to the learning task can compete for attention and increase cognitive load.
• Offer partial solutions to increase focus on the most challenging elements. Providing support in less crucial areas can help students see a path to success without becoming preoccupied by the distracting details and features of the challenge.
• Be cognizant of emotional tone and elements that may compete for students’ attention. Lowering the stakes during initial learning attempts, providing a supportive environment, and encouraging students as they learn can make an important difference in their ability to focus.

Managing cognitive load is an important challenge when introducing new concepts and teaching new skills to our students. However, cognitive load issues are not just for young learners. We, too, need to monitor and manage our own cognitive load as we learn, manage new tasks, and balance multiple responsibilities.