Seven tips to help your students to focus

Improving your students’ concentration in the classroom isn’t always an easy task. Find out our favourite tried-and-tested focus strategies for students.

With the onslaught of new technology and larger class sizes than ever, it’s increasingly hard to keep students focused and engaged during lessons. Here we offer some simple strategies you can employ to retain attention.

Keeping your students focused at a glance

Improving focus in the classroom requires some pre-planning, but it will pay off in the long run. Being aware of a few different strategies helps you as the teacher to adapt to the varying challenges in students’ ability to concentrate.

First and foremost, ensure that you remove any distractions and minimise lulls to avoid the opportunities that may break your students’ attention.

Starting your lessons on the right foot is also key to improved attention spans. You could introduce a quick physical warm up or set up a starter task to get your students in the right mindset.

Although phones and other devices might be a cause for distraction these days, utilising technology in your teaching can help to engage your students. You’ll be more likely to capture their focus when you utilise a medium they’re interested in.

Finish reading this article to discover all of our insider tips for increasing your students’ attention spans during lessons.

For more information or to discuss your employment needs in education, please contact your local consultant.

7 ways to help your students to stay focused in the classroom

1. Remove distractions

It might seem like an obvious suggestion but you need to ensure that you’re providing and creating an environment dedicated to learning.

• Seat students who have an adverse effect on one another's learning away from each other.
• Remind students not to get their phones out during lessons. Otherwise they will be subject to the school’s behaviour policy.
• Make sure your display boards cover current topics or those coming up to avoid the class from being distracted by discussing what they’ve learnt previously.

2. Encourage group work

Regardless of whether your students are in primary or secondary school, they typically have bundles of energy. Help them to avoid wasting this energy and losing focus by pushing them to channel it positively.

A good concept for rechanneling students’ energy is to get them involved in group work.  Whether they work in smaller or larger teams, a group project allows them to learn together through an interesting medium. Getting everyone involved in group work also helps to avoid the students from getting distracted by themselves and others.

3. Set up starter activities

Get your students into an intellectual mindset from the outset. Once they’re in the classroom, have a starter task organised ready for them to take part in. Focusing on a task from the beginning of the lesson engages your students in the topic straight away. This tactic helps to ensure that they don’t lose focus and start talking amongst themselves as you hand out books or resources.

The task could be something simple like asking the students to briefly write out what they learnt the day before. Alternatively, you could conduct a quick quiz or try out a memory game.

4. Utilise movement as a warm up

Every teacher will understand the post-lunch afternoon slump. A good way to try to improve concentration in the afternoon is to get your students moving before the lesson starts.

Whilst this approach may not be suitable for students of all ages, something as easy as a few jumping jacks behind their chairs can work for many. You could also ask your students to repeat some hand clapping patterns to get them reinvigorated. Doing a quick warm up activity to start off the afternoon will help to ensure a positive classroom experience.

5. Minimise lulls

The best way to keep your classroom on-task is to nip distraction in the bud before it has a chance to start. Set a strict structure and time deadlines to tasks throughout the lesson to avoid lulls and occasions of “dead time”.

If you set up a structure pattern within your teaching, your students will soon adapt to this and ultimately see that there’s little time for diversions. This approach will ensure you’ll have captured the students’ attention for the entirety of their time with you.

6. Mix it up

Whilst structure is a good form of keeping students engaged and on track, it can help to “mix it up” now and again. Maybe one day a week, on a Monday or Friday where children are prepositioned to be less focused, mix up your teaching style.

For example, you could take a back seat and push the students to be leaders in their own learning. Pair them up and ask them to deliver a presentation to you and the class about what they’ve learnt. This engages them in their learning by having them formulate a presentation to showcase that they’ve paid attention and listened earlier. You can also encourage them to answer questions afterwards to make sure they’re listening and focusing on others’ presentations as well.

7. Don’t treat technology as the enemy

It can seem at times that technology in the form of phones, tablets and hand-held games is the ultimate cause of students being distracted. But interactive devices aren’t always the enemy! You can take advantage of your students’ interest in technology and turn it into a positive thing by utilising it to formulate interactive learning activities. If you’re providing a lesson through a vehicle that they’re interested in, you’re much more likely to capture their focus and encourage their learning.

What you need to remember about keeping your students focused

To increase concentration in the classroom, you will have to get creative and try a few of the methods listed above to see what works best for your students. 

Browse more articles like this for our latest careers advice.