Attention

In a society where people are becoming increasingly aware of attention disorders in relation to student learning, this chapter is particularly relevant to education in modern times. Educators must be aware of the different ways in which students focus their attention and attend to a given task.  James notes that attention can be passive or active, is often willed by the individual, and will at times need to be intentionally refocused. I would also add that the way attention is used is highly individualized.  For me, it is hard to focus on many things at once. I am not very good at multitasking simultaneously. Instead, chunking my time to devote 100 percent of my attention to a given task is what works best for me. On the other hand, some individuals can go almost seamlessly from one task to the next and back again. What accounts for these differences?

James talks about attention as it relates to the idea of genius, and makes connections to the idea of genius and creativity. To keep attention, James notes; “the subject must be made to show new aspects of itself; to prompt new questions; in a word, to change” (p. 52). James likens this to a genius constantly revisiting an idea from different perspectives, trying to understand the same thing in multiple ways. In this sense, attention and interest come from within and must be prompted by the individual. Teachers can make the subject matter relevant by connecting it to the student’s individual experience, but ultimately it is up to the student to focus in on that information and acquire it.

Towards the end of his talk, James notes that some individuals are able to “sink into a subject of meditation deeply” and that this is “probably a fixed characteristic of the individual” (p. 57). I am inclined to disagree with James on this matter. While certainly some individuals may come by this ability naturally, I do think that this type of attention can be learned. The best example that I can think of is mindfulness or meditation. With practice, most any individual can learn how to focus on something, whether it be a word or idea, or simply their breathing, for longer and longer periods of time. I think that attention, like other skills, is a habit that can be acquired to a certain extent. Perhaps we should focus not only on connecting material to the individual’s interest, but also helping them to develop a habit of mindfulness that allows them to better focus their attention on new and unrelated material. But in a culture where we do not often encourage mindfulness, is this even practical?