Winning the Battle for Student Attention

Every teacher knows how difficult it can be to capture student attention and engage everyone in a classroom throughout every lesson, but a 2024 study on how inattention can originate and spread across a room explored the challenge more closely—and found that distractedness can be as contagious as a virus.

In the study, the researchers observed a lecture hall of 180 students. A small group of those students had been given special instructions—to take their assigned seats and show overt signs of inattention, such as slouching, looking bored, and failing to take notes. What researchers discovered was that students within close proximity to the assigned slackers struggled to pay attention themselves—and one after another, students across the room began to check out. Formerly attentive students wrote half as many pages of notes and scored an average of 9 points lower on a follow-up quiz. 

These findings add to a widening base of evidence showing the upheaval that can result from more conspicuous distractions like fidget toys (2023), laptops (2020), and cell phones (2024).

But not every lesson can be a slam dunk—there will be moments of boredom. Experienced teachers say the best way to get student attention—and ensure they stay tuned in—starts with thoughtful preparation: Make students accountable by co-creating classroom norms, set up clear classroom rules for transitions, audit lesson instructions for clarity, design (and save!) engaging classroom materials, and consider strategic placement of chatty or absent-minded kids to keep everyone on-task.

To dig more deeply into the research cited in the video, read Noah D. Forrin, Nour Kudsi, Emily N. Cyr, Faria Sana, Ido Davidesco, and Joseph A. Kim’s research paper about how inattention can spread among students in a lecture hall (2024).  

To learn more about 2024’s most compelling research findings for educators, visit “The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2024.”