The Drawback of Classroom Instruction: Distractions

Classroom instruction is the standard for public education in this day and age. It is arguably the most effective and efficient way of large group instruction. A significant drawback of this method, which has surely occurred to everyone at least once, is loss of focus, also known as being distracted. “Classroom distractions may be defined as those events which take teachers and/or their students off the intended instructional tasks. This includes any behavior, activity, or event that comes to the attention of either the teacher or his/her students” (Behnke, 1981). Distraction is one of the biggest reasons why some students underachieve while others do not.

An experiment was conducted where two testing sessions were held where one included distractions and the other did not. “Distractions occurred soon after the beginning of each of the six timed subtests… The distractions used were as follows: 1) an alarm-type bell went off; 2) two kittens were dropped into the room, then removed; 3) the lights were blinked three times; 4) a radio playing the World Series was turned on for 30 seconds; 5) a person entered to bring the examiner a note and dropped an armload of papers; 6) two teachers entered the room talking, did a ‘double-take’ and left; 7) a book was dropped; and 8) a child came in, asked for someone who was not present and left” (Trentham, 1975).

Figure 1: Test scores of two test-taking groups, one with distractions and the other without

As shown in Figure 1, the non-distraction group scored higher than the distraction group. This supports the idea that students need a distraction-free environment to perform at their best.

One of the biggest classroom distractions is the use of electronics. The use of a laptop during a lecture can single-handedly make-or-break the lecture. “Cynthia M. Frisby, associate professor of strategic communication at the University of Missouri, has noticed students on MySpace and eBay during her lectures. She has noticed more failing grades… Now she bans laptops in her large lectures courses… The result? ‘Huge increases in attention and better performance on exams,’ she says” (Bugeja, 2007).

There’s no denying that using a laptop for non-instructional purposes can destroy the purpose of the lecture. But if technology were used for the purpose of the class, it makes a significant difference. Findings show that “technology use predicts self-directed learning and student engagement but has a negligible overall relationship with academic performance” (Rashid, 2016). If a student is engaged and is interested in more, research on the internet can propel the student by learning extra material in and out of the classroom.

The use of electronics is a way of self-distraction. In many other cases, a distraction will occur from another student. An experiment shows “that distracting inattentive behavior on the part of one student, in the form of a verbal off-task comment or nonverbal actions, leads other students to stop attending to the reading lesson… Inattentive behavior appears to diffuse through the group in short spurts… with distraction leading to more inattention immediately following the distracting behavior” (Felmlee, 1985). A student has no individual control over distractions created by a classmate. Even so, it is clearly shown that a single distraction can lead to the loss of attention from many of the students. It is up to the professor to limit these distractions in the classroom by not allowing such things to occur.

References

Behnke, G., Labovitz, E. M., Bennett, J., Chase, C., Day, J., Lazar, C., & Mittleholtz, D. (1981, January). Coping with Classroom Distractions. The Elementary School Journal, 81(3), 135-155.

Bugeja, M. J. (2007, January 26). Distractions in the Wireless Classroom.

Felmlee, D., Eder, D., & Tsui, W. (1985, September). Peer Influence on Classroom Attention. Social Psychology Quarterly, 48(3), 215-226.

Rashid, T., & Asghar, H. M. (2016, June 6). Technology use, self-directed learning, student engagement and academic performance: Examining the interrelations. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 604-612.

Trentham, L. L. (1975, Spring). The Effect of Distractions on Sixth-Grade Students in a Testing Situation. Journal of Educational Measurement, 12(1), 13-17.