By Sarah Egan-Reeves, M.Ed.

In a recent study more than 100,000 observations of student behavior from roughly 1,100 students over the course of a school year were collected from public, private and parochial elementary students.
The findings may be surprising or confirm what you already know.

Students were off task over 25% of the time they were expected to be learning and working.
Students went off task more often as an instructional activity increased beyond 10 minutes.
Students went off task more frequently during whole-group instruction than during small group or individual work.
Students were often distracted by classroom decor (posters, bulletin boards, etc.) and by other students.
Girls were more often distracted than boys.

Technology tools have been developed to assist teachers in tracking engagement levels and increasing students engagement but their effectiveness is still being tested.

CITE Discussion Starter: (We would love to hear your feedback. Please comment below or on the corresponding Facebook post.)

Should educators limit or “chunk “their lessons into 10-minute segments or should continue with longer segments and hope it lengthens the attention-span of their students?
How has learning engagement changed in the past 5 years? What have you done (successfully or unsuccessfully) to address the change?
What do you think learning engagement will look like 5 years from now?

Read the research yourself here:

Godwin, K. E., Almeda, M. V., Seltman, H., Kai, S., Skerbetz, M. D., Baker, R. S., & Fisher, A. V. (2016). Off-task behavior in elementary school children. Learning and Instruction, 44, 128-143. Retrieved at http://www.upenn.edu/learninganalytics/ryanbaker/Godwinetal_v12.pdf