This knowledge construction function plays a role in each of the three phases of the mental act. It exerts a major influence on the collection of information at the reception level, on decision making at the transformation level (T-20) and on the collection of feedback at the communication level (C-8). Here, among the reception functions, we will concentrate on the role of attention in the collection of information.



The brain registers large amounts of information at any moment but we only attend to a tiny subset. Scientists estimate that, in volume, the brain registers megabytes of information every second, much of this contributed by the visual sense, but the amount of information that we attend to per second is just a few kilobytes, perhaps typically somewhere around 40. This tiny subset, however, is extremely important because it represents the information we are mindful of, that is the information we have the ability to use as a means of deliberately forming our thought and steering our behavior. This information is the realm of the knowledge construction function of attention.



Schools are settings that intentionally arrange knowledge to facilitate learning. Schools structure, organize and present information within a curriculum to optimize the sequence of events that learners must attend to as a means of achieving the mission of the school. There is, of course, intense debate and competing views about how this should be done, even within schools with the same educational goals, but the point here is that all schools, in one way or another, structure and order the way information passes through the narrow funnel of attention. The nature of this knowledge construction function, fair to say, has greatly influenced the way schools are designed and operated. Indeed, the nature of attention, however perceived, also shapes society at large where providers of every commodity and service along with news channels, politicians and community leaders compete fiercely for it.



The knowledge construction function of attention, when fully developed, is a flexible and versatile tool that students can deploy to collect information under widely different conditions.



(1) Focused attention: We can learn to focus our attention on a given source of information ("Look at the dog", "Watch the red indicator", "Step on the gas when the green light comes on", "Start the quiz when I say 'go'").



(2) Sustained attention: We can learn to apply attention over extended periods of time, that is we can learn to sustain our attention ("Keep still and be as alert as the frog on the lilypad", "As you watch the play concentrate on the reaction of the oppressors", "In your vigil keep an eye out for any signs of changes in breathing").



(3) Selective attention: We can learn to select a given source of information and screen others out ("Listen for your name when I call for you on the playground", "In the symphony analyze the role of the violins"; "I can hear my baby crying over the din of the party").



(4) Alternating attention: We can learn to alternate our attention between different sources of information ("In the competition, keep an eye out on the progress, also, of the other teams", "Pause what you are doing for a moment and look up here", "To follow the dialogue, shift your attention from speaker to speaker."



(5) Divided attention: We can learn to divide our attention and pay attention at once to two or more sources of information. ("Lakisha is good at listening and taking notes", "Josh is such a good player because he follows what everyone is doing on the field"; "Alice is a good driver because she knows how to divide her attention between her vehicle, the traffic signs and the behavior of other drivers on the road").



Some forms of attention are harder than others and we encounter limits with all of them. Divided attention is often perceived to be hard when tasks are new and unfamiliar (see also T-5) but each type of attention can be challenging in its own way. It is difficult, for example, to sustain attention while doing repetitive work over long periods of time. Boredom can set in and the mind begins to drift. Selective attention is difficult when signals are faint relative to the background noise.



In discussing attention it is important to understand that the student's age or developmental level needs to be taken into consideration as well. We do not expect a five or six year old to be able to pay attention in the same manner as a ten or twelve year old. Moreover, attention is dependent on the student's motivational, emotional and physiological states in addition to the characteristics of the task and the surrounding learning environment. Most teachers have a sense of how the attention of their group of students ebbs and flows by the hour of the day. Many can also detect even small changes in individual students whose attention, for instance, may become divided as a result of a worry at home.



To mediate the development of this knowledge construction function explain the different kinds of attention to your students and have them come up with examples of each one both from school and non-school type activities. How is attention important when using tools, when cooking, when driving, when talking with other people? How is attention important for a cash register attendant, a taxi driver, a pilot, a judge, and an election official? How is attention important when doing calculation problems, when writing, when reading?



Use activities as needed to provide opportunities for your students to practice different types of attention. Here are some examples:



Focused attention: (1) Silence. Have students concentrate on time without looking at their watches. Have them raise their hand when they think 1 minute has gone by. Jot down their names as they raise their hand using a recording sheet showing the lapse of time. Go as much over the one minute timeframe as needed for all students to raise their hand. Give them feedback by telling them which student got closest to the one minute timeframe. Repeat a few times and keep recording. Have students discuss their experience of focusing their attention. Use the recording sheets as an example of your focused attention. (2) Have students work in pairs. Maintain silence. Have each student take the pulse of the other. Use a one minute interval. Prepare a chart of the recorded information for the class as a whole. Discuss the role which this knowledge construction function plays in securing that precise information is collected.



Sustained attention: (1) read two stories to your class one with intonation, inflection and animation in your voice and a similar one in a bland monotone. Have students discuss what they observed about sustained attention. Did they find their minds wandering in the monotone reading? Have them discuss any measures they might have taken in an effort to sustain their attention. (2) Have them think of different situations where sustained attention is important in their school work and in various jobs that people may have (e.g. aircraft controllers, baggage screeners, trapeze artists, mountain climbers).



Selective attention: (1) Regulate background noise for example with a CD player. Have students record the paragraphs you read in a natural speaking voice. Raise the background noise after each paragraph. Continue reading in your natural speaking voice. Stop when selective attention no longer is possible for any of the students. (To avoid disturbing students next door you can have your students sit away from you, put the CD right behind them or adopt an artificially soft voice when you read). (2) Have students discuss their experience with selective attention and have them identify situations at school and at home where selective attention may be important to their success.



Alternating attention: (1) For younger students: It is easy to create activities that require alternating attention. For example, spin several tops on different tables and tell the students to restart any top before it comes to a complete halt. Vary the number of tops and tables per student to make the task challenging and fun without making it too difficult. (2) For older students. Divide the students into two groups, one that will listen first for nouns and then for verbs and one that will listen first for verbs and then for nouns. Stop and raise your hand at pre-set points in the text to indicate that the groups should switch their attention from one word category to the other. Use longer stories with older students. Have students total their word count within each consecutive 30 second period. Compile the data and make a group graph. Put into the graph the correct number of nouns and verbs in each 30 second time period. Look at the data for alternating attention over time. Have students discuss their experience with this type of attention. Was it harder or easier than the other types of attention? Why? (3) Have your students come up with situations in their work at school or at home where alternating attention is important for their success. Are there jobs or skills that require alternating attention? (e.g. watching two younger siblings, conducting an orchestra, coaching a team, teaching!).



Divided attention: (1) For older students. Continue with the previous type of exercise but now have all students pay attention to nouns and verbs (or adjectives and adverbs) at the same time when you read. They need to divide their attention between two word types at the same time. Use 30 second reading periods and continue to pause briefly at the end of each one so students can clearly identify how many of each word type they identified in each period. Prepare a group graph as before. Have students discuss their experience with divided attention. (2) For younger students. Many common board games require that players divide their attention between different opponents. Pick a game for your students that is suitable in content and level of difficulty. (3) Many computer games raise the level of difficulty by increasing the number of challenges that require attention at the same time and by increasing the requirement for speed in responding to them (Space Invaders, Tetris). (4) Have your students come up with situations at school or at home where divided attention is important for their success. As before, have them look also for jobs or skills which require that attention be divided simultaneously among different sources of information (e.g. juggling acts, team sports, teaching!). You and your students will likely discover that planning and goal achievement often require careful divisions of attention in order for the different parts of a project to come together and gel as a coherent whole (see T-22, T-23 and T-24). Multitasking is becoming increasingly common as people get accustomed to processing information from different electronic venues at the same time.



As your students develop their understanding of the role of attention in knowledge construction guide them to examine the connection between this knowledge construction function and goal seeking and goal setting (T-22). Goal seeking and goal setting enable the learner to begin to organize information in terms of relevance and relevance provides a rationale for attention. This connection between a transformation function (T-22) and a reception function (R-2) can be used to assist students who have difficulties with attention. In other words, students can often acquire a better understanding of attention, and exercise better control over the application of this function, when they can apply it to a situation that derives its purpose from a context that has significance relative to the learner's own search for meaning. One good way to help your students to focus and maintain attention is to establish eye contact with them before you begin an activity or give a direction and then to use words and language to guide their actions during an activity. For example, "What do you think you need to do here?" or "Look here, let's read the directions first." or "What do you need to do next?" For younger children it is often helpful to have them restate the purpose of the tasks they are confronting. For example, if a student is given a task to select all the red blocks from a group of different colored blocks, he needs to selectively attend to only the color red in order to complete the task. Some students may have difficulty ignoring the other colored blocks and thus not complete the task. Or the student may not have clearly understood the task was to only find the red ones. This is why it is so important for the child to understand the problem in order to know what is relevant and not relevant to attend to. The mediating teacher will help the student define the problem clearly, perhaps using questions. "What do you have to do in this task? Is it to collect all the blocks or just one color? What is the color you need to attend to?" To apply the proper type of attention, encourage your students to talk through situations and determine the goal before rushing into them. This will help them to focus their attention on the relevant aspects of the task. As they do so help them see how they are regulating their use of this knowledge construction function.