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Shana Fisk

Marisa Enos

ENG 111 W02

27 March 2017
Negative Habits of Attention in Education

The education systems sole purpose is to prepare students for a successful transition into

their professional careers. However, as of now, society has adapted many bad habits when it

comes to attention in schools that are negatively effecting the learning that is supposed to be

taking place. Whether big or small, habits regarding attention have massive impact, especially in

a college course where every point counts. Critical thinking is becoming scarce due to bad habits

and the use of memorization more apparent. Authors Paulo Freire, James VanderMey, Matthew

Crawford and Jack Mezirow each provide evidence of bad habits in education, while Author

Robert Leamnson helps clarify what exactly happens in the making of a habit.

A habit occurs when a person repeats an action until that action becomes second nature.

James VanderMey defines it as a tendency to act, say or think in a certain way (12). An

example of This can be as simple as biting finger nails when nervous or tapping a foot during a

test. Robert Leamnson, who is a professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts, wrote

an article titled The Biological basis of Learning, which comments on the biological process

that occurs when a habit is formed. Basically, he says that neurons fire and create pathways when

a person participates in certain activities. Leamnson says that it is experience and sensory

interaction with the environment that promotes and stabilizes neural connections (67). When a

stimulus is experienced over and over, the brain is most likely to keep the neural pathways

formed. These new connections will only stabilize, according to Leamnson, if the pathway is

used at a high frequency (67). For example, if a person studies every single day for 15 minutes,

eventually the activity becomes easier because the brain decides this pathway is important and
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useful. This also applies to what is not paid attention to, for example if someone were to sleep

every day during lecture, their brains more than likely will not be ready when they walk into

class but instead will reside to the habit of getting drowsy. This applies to attention as well. What

is paid attention to whether consciously or unconsciously, can also form these neural pathways.

With that being said, one can see how easily bad habits can be formed due to lack of attentional

discipline in schools, even in the K-12 period.

From kindergarten until a students senior year of high school, life is typically about

skating by until it is time to receive a diploma. This is done by memorizing information long

enough to regurgitate it for a standardized test in order to pass the given class. What is crucial to

point out here is the lack of critical thinking that takes place, which results in strictly

memorization and a limited thinking habit. A lack of critical thinking does not demand attention

in the classroom, and like Leamnson said, the brain needs to train itself with a repeated stimulus.

Paulo Freire would label this state of being as narration sickness, which takes place as a

teacher fills his or her students with information without giving it any significance (Freire 1). In

narration sickness both the student and the teacher are at risk for bad attention habits. The

teacher will make a habit of not explaining and assuming the students are understanding and the

students will form the habit of discarding information because there is no significance. Freire

emphasizes the concept of banking education in which students act strictly as depositories for

the storage of information. This type of education is present in most classrooms today and until it

is addressed, it will keep influencing negative habits on attention. Outside forces such as high

technology use also take a toll on attention spans in the classroom.

Frequent phone use is highly common today and can influence negative habits when

attempting to focus attention elsewhere like in studies or lecture halls, and therefore should not
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be allowed. Matthew B. Crawford, whom has his PhD in Political Philosophy and is the author

or Attention as a Cultural Problem, would agree that these attentional habits are easily formed

and provides his own example using a business man. Crawford speaks of a corporate manager

who gets two hundred emails a day dealing with the demands of his job. The man is so

accustomed to checking his email and not having control over his attention, that when it comes

to home life he struggles to be fully present (38). The man checks his email with the expectation

of work so often that his brain hardwires this stimulus and it becomes a habit that takes away

control of his own attention. This can be devastating to a marriage or family like in this story, but

it can also have some sever consequences when it comes to teaching and learning. Smart phones

are almost essential in the typical household these days as everything is ran online. Text

messaging has become more and more common and social media is the most powerful form of

news. So, when does the constant stream of notifications become too much? A simple vibration

in a classroom is enough to cause a student and the students around them to check their phone or

wonder who it is, resulting in a lack of attention to the presented material. Matthew Crawford

writes in his piece Attention as a Cultural Problem, that Attention is the thing that is most

ones own: in the normal course of things, we choose what to pay attention to, and in a very real

sense this determines what is real for us; what is actually present to our consciousness

(Crawford, 43). If a person conditions their brain to respond to every notification received,

whether they realize it or not, the brain will react and their attention will be pulled to the phone.

Attention in education is dire to a successful life due to job requirements becoming more and

more competitive and advanced.

The entire point of education is to make for a well-rounded and prepared citizen when

entering the work force. There are certain expectations or competencies that are thought to be
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had when one graduates high school or college. The Negative habits of attention mentioned

before can hinder a persons success in acquiring the competencies needed to enter their

professions. If a student simply memorizes information long enough to pass a test and is never

forced to retain what they are being taught, they will not be able to perform when asked to do so

in the future. Jack Mezirow, who wrote Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice has an

idea like this which he termed autonomous thinking. This consists of the required

competencies, like analyzing information and communicating idea, to be met in order to become

a responsible citizen (89). Mezirow says As we move into the next century and more

technologically sophisticated industry and service sectors, work becomes more abstract,

depending on understanding and manipulating information rather than merely acquiring it (89).

Mezirow makes a very valid point here, as work becomes abstract and requires critical thinking,

society needs to prepare themselves by devoting full attention to their educational studies. Two

people can both apply for a job and have the same degree but the job will go to the one who is

more well-rounded and retained information from their studies. Bad attentional habits need to be

worked out of education and replaced with those that emphasize critical thinking and

comprehension.

Attention is a crucial factor of a successful education and entrance into the real world,

when bad habits start to effect attention, the results can be devastating. Unfortunately, education

is become more and more like Freires banking concept model every day and passive learning is

deemed okay. In a world where technology is everywhere and schools are become more

standardized, society must find a way to reinforce critical thinking and reflection into curriculum

to re-develop positive habits of attention. Once this happens, graduates will find themselves
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becoming autonomous thinkers as they prepare for a successful entrance into their earned

profession.
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Works Cited

Crawford, Matthew. Attention as a Cultural Problem. Exploring Connections, Mid-Michigan

Community College, 2016, pp36-48.

Leamnson, Robert. The Biological Basis of Learning. Exploring Connections, Mid-Michigan

Community College, 2016, pp 65-85.

VanderMey, James. Remarks on Habit. Exploring Connections, Mid-Michigan Community

College, 2016 pp 12-17.

Mezirow, Jack. Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice. Exploring Connections, Mid-

Michigan Community College, 2016 pp 86-93.

Freire, Paulo. The Banking Concept of Education.