-
Question: For students with attention deficit disorders (both ADD and ADHD) is there any way of distinguishing between inattention that is a result of their disorder and the inattention that is a result of not finding the lesson interesting? These are lessons which are accessible to the students, and teachers are struggling with which strategies to use as they are not always able to determine the root of the inattention.
Comments
Mike commented on :
Reward schemes etc could be designed for them perhaps (without trying to create too much work for you).
Gaia commented on :
I agree! The challenge for teachers is integrating these additional incentives with their other plans for the class – though they may be beneficial for all?
vmarshall commented on :
I think they are beneficial for all – I think a lot of strategies that we use with students with various types of SEN can actually be beneficial for all.
Gaia commented on :
How tailored can your lessons be? Can children compete against themselves (i.e., in terms of improvement to self, rather than against others)? That solves a little the problem that if you are v good or v bad in absolute terms you are a bit stuck.
vmarshall commented on :
It depends on the subject and the content being covered I guess. Most teachers at my school are good at tailoring their lessons to meet the needs of individuals. I think they just struggle when it comes to more ‘boring’ exam content that they just ‘need to get through’. Much easier to tailor lessons for younger year groups and not exam classes.
Gaia commented on :
I hear your and your colleagues’ pain with exam content… Any chance of turning that into a game itself (i.e., see if you can beat yourself at your previous score on this short section of that exam)?
vmarshall commented on :
I think there are definitely opportunities for this throughout the year – especially in certain subjects where it is very quick for students to mark their own work and see quickly an improvement on their score (thinking Maths and Science). Less easy in English where it would require a lot more input from the teacher in re-marking test answers.
Mike commented on :
This perhaps sidesteps your question slightly, but I think one important neuroscience finding in motivation that can be readily applied to education is that ‘liking’ something (i.e. finding it fun), is not the same thing as ‘wanting’ something (i.e. being motivated to repeat it). They use different brain areas and can be activated independently. I think this has big implications for teaching styles potentially. https://hobbolog.wordpress.com/2017/03/30/liking-vs-wanting-a-neuroscientific-view-on-classroom-motivation/