International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
Figure 5 The 20-minute attention span [18]
With proper timing, Brad Vander Zanden writes that this 20-minute period can be extended by giving your
audience/class a “break” by introducing such activities as giving a demo or telling a story [27]. At the same time,
Wilson and Korn have found no specific evidence to support the common belief that the typical student attention
span is about 10 to 15 minutes long, and no reason why teachers should chunk content to best facilitate learning
and retention [28].
More dramatically some recent studies have shown both a considerable drop in both our sustained and focused
attention spans. According to the infographic “How Social Media in Ruining Our Minds” our sustained attention
spans have been reduced from 12 minutes to 4 minutes in just ten years [2]. In a behaviour study [17] Lloyds
TBS Insurance has found that it is our modern lifestyles that have shortened our focused attention spans to mere
seconds, and this has led to a striking and more costly increase in domestic accidents (See Table 2). An
interesting finding of the study was that older people (who presumably have less exposure to digitalized media)
are able to keep their interest on something longer than younger people.
Table 2 Insurance Claims as related to intention spans [17]
Average insurance claim for accidents by region
Region UK North East North West York/Humber E.Mids W.Mids
Ave. claim 1,400 1,300 1,410 1,300 1,370 1,425
Region East Anglia S.East S.West London Scotland Wales
Ave.claim 1,190 1,525 1,260 1,960 1,560 1,1190
Attention span in seconds by sex, age and region
UK Male Female 18-34 35-44 45-54 55+
Att. Span 5.07 5.03 5.11 5.01 5.18 5.18 5.10
Region N.East N.West Yorks/Humber E.Mids W.Mids East Anglia S.East
Att.Span 4.15 5.18 5.17 5.43 5.20 4.47 5.02
Region S.West London Scotland Wales
Att.Span 4.40 4.47 5.18 6.07
In another study, “Not Quite the Average: An Empirical Study of Web Use, [26] it was found that the average
focused attention span has dropped by 4 seconds from 2000 to 2012 (See Table 3)
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