Categories: News

‘My brain leaves the room’: what happens when teachers talk too much?

Researchers explain how teachers might be failing the one in four students with a language of attention disorder.

<div class&equals;"theconversation-article-body"> <&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"theconversation-article-body">&NewLine;<h2>About <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;tandfonline&period;com&sol;doi&sol;pdf&sol;10&period;1080&sol;19404158&period;2023&period;2285270" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">four students in every classroom<&sol;a> will have a language or attention disorder&period; While some of these students will have an official diagnosis of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;what-is-dld-the-most-common-disorder-you-have-never-heard-of-189979" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">developmental language disorder<&sol;a> &lpar;DLD&rpar; or <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;do-kids-grow-out-of-adhd-as-they-get-older-218692" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder<&sol;a> &lpar;ADHD&rpar;&comma; others will be &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;eprints&period;qut&period;edu&period;au&sol;122876&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">hiding in plain sight<&sol;a>”&period; These students may often be in trouble for acting out&comma; underachieving or not attending school&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>In our <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;link&period;springer&period;com&sol;article&sol;10&period;1007&sol;s13384-024-00728-x" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">new study<&sol;a>&comma; we interviewed 59 students with DLD and&sol;or ADHD about their experiences of Year 10 English&period; This is the only subject all Australian students must do from the first year of schooling to Year 12&period; And it plays a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;link&period;springer&period;com&sol;article&sol;10&period;1007&sol;s13384-022-00563-y" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">key role<&sol;a> in their success at school and beyond it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Students in our study reported some of their teachers talk too much&period; Why is this a problem&quest; What can teachers do instead&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;latest-print-issue&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener"><strong>Read the latest print edition of <em>School News<&sol;em> HERE<&sol;strong><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>What are DLD and ADHD&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>About <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;what-is-dld-the-most-common-disorder-you-have-never-heard-of-189979" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">two students<&sol;a> in every classroom of 30 will have DLD&period; This is a lifelong disorder that affects language comprehension and expression&period; People with DLD find it more difficult to say what they mean and to understand others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>About <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;abc&period;net&period;au&sol;news&sol;2021-11-28&sol;takeover-melbourne-bill-maria&sol;100633592" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">one or two students<&sol;a> per classroom will have ADHD&period; This <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;what-is-audhd-5-important-things-to-know-when-someone-has-both-autism-and-adhd-233095" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">can include<&sol;a> difficulties with focusing attention&comma; following <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;whats-the-difference-between-add-and-adhd-225162" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">detailed instructions<&sol;a> and self control&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It is also possible for students to have both DLD and ADHD&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While schools are legally required to remove learning barriers for students with disability&comma; students first need to be identified as needing this support&period; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;tandfonline&period;com&sol;doi&sol;full&sol;10&period;1080&sol;19404158&period;2023&period;2285270" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Research shows<&sol;a> students with less visible disabilities&comma; such as DLD and ADHD&comma; are more likely to fly under the radar of schools and so do not get the help they need&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;31317" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-31317" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-31317" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2024&sol;08&sol;AdobeStock&lowbar;126743855-300x198&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"198" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-31317" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Some students report their &&num;8220&semi;brain leaves the room&&num;8221&semi; during lessons&period; Image&colon; AdobeStock by pairhandmade&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<h2>Our study<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>As part of a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;research&period;qut&period;edu&period;au&sol;accessibleassessment&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">broader project<&sol;a> on accessible assessment&comma; in 2022&comma; we recruited more than 200 students from three Queensland public high schools&period; Through testing&comma; we identified a subgroup of 59 students with likely language and&sol;or attention disorders&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The students were all between 13 and 15&period; About half identified as female and half as male&period; Students were taught by 26 different teachers&period; Almost three quarters of students &lpar;71&percnt;&rpar; in the sample had not previously been identified as having difficulty with either language or attention&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All 59 students participated in individual interviews&comma; which included questions about their classroom experiences&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Do you think some teachers talk too much&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Research <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;taylorfrancis&period;com&sol;chapters&sol;edit&sol;10&period;4324&sol;9781003350897-13&sol;accessible-pedagogies&percnt;E2&percnt;84&percnt;A2-linda-graham-haley-tancredi" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">shows<&sol;a> removing unnecessary complexity from classroom teaching is really important when helping students learn&comma; especially if they already have issues with language and information processing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>More than two thirds of participants &lpar;69&percnt;&rpar; in our study said some of their teachers talk too much&period; Eight responded with a forceful &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;YES&excl;” Importantly&comma; students also described the effect of too much teacher talk — including when teachers &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;go off topic” — on their ability to sustain focus&comma; attention and engagement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As Gareth&ast; explained&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;&lbrack;The&rsqb; ones that are just like talking and not doing anything&comma; I’ll just zone out and don’t do anything&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Bella noted&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Yes&period; Uh&comma; uh&comma; my brain leaves the room&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Another student&comma; Pippy&comma; told us that once behind&comma; it is difficult to re-engage&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>I just think&comma; well&comma; like when my teacher’s talking&comma; I&comma; my brain kind of&comma; it gets like really slow&comma; and I have to think back about&comma; &OpenCurlyQuote;Oh&comma; they just said those words&comma; what do those mean&quest;&OpenCurlyQuote; And then I’m like&comma; &&num;8216&semi;Okay&comma; I’m catching up’&period; And then she’s already like gone all the way down like already explained so much more&period; I’ve like missed that &OpenCurlyQuote;cause I was trying to focus on what she was just explaining before&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<h2>What else happens when teachers talk too much&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>To learn more about the impact of too much teacher talk&comma; we showed students an iPad and asked them to choose which options on the display applied to them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The most popular response was students begin thinking of other things&period; The next most popular responses were their brain shut down and&sol;or they talked to the person next to them&period; Although no student selected &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I get up to mischief” as a standalone choice&comma; four did select &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;all of the above”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>These responses reflect what happens when working memory – the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdzjesenik&period;cz&sol;Cogmed&sol;Gathercole&lowbar;S&lowbar;PSYCHOLOGIST&lowbar;2008&lowbar;21&lowbar;Working&lowbar;memory&lowbar;in&lowbar;the&lowbar;classroom&period;pdf" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">memory system<&sol;a> that provides a kind of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;mental jotting pad storing information necessary for everyday activities” – is overloaded&period; When this occurs&comma; brains really do &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;leave the room”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>What can teachers do instead&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>There is no precise figure when it comes to the amount a teacher should talk&comma; but a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;edweek&period;org&sol;teaching-learning&sol;how-much-should-teachers-talk-in-the-classroom-much-less-some-say&sol;2019&sol;12" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">good rule of thumb<&sol;a> is around one quarter of the lesson&period; This allows time for active questioning and feedback&comma; and for the completion of activities&period; It also reduces student passivity and is less exhausting for the teacher&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Just as important as the proportion of teacher talk is <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;tandfonline&period;com&sol;doi&sol;full&sol;10&period;1080&sol;03634523&period;2015&period;1041998&quest;casa&lowbar;token&equals;tfYUtmks-PEAAAAA&percnt;3AcrAgRZe38Zh3onO4yZ&lowbar;xaM0W3TmjuMrT&lowbar;Ag2bLlmBfV-BMuQI83GsRm6CXeyVNddCjH1GxbIqLRvGTc" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">how easy it is<&sol;a> to understand them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Students in our study said &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;excellent” teachers used simple words and would &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;go through” things several times in different ways&period; They also said excellent teachers did not go too fast and paused to allow students to process what had been said&period; They would also regularly check in with students during the lesson to see if they understood what they needed to do&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Though it might be assumed teachers are already using these simple strategies&comma; our findings suggest otherwise&period; We asked students about 16 <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;taylorfrancis&period;com&sol;chapters&sol;edit&sol;10&period;4324&sol;9781003350897-13&sol;accessible-pedagogies&percnt;E2&percnt;84&percnt;A2-linda-graham-haley-tancredi" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">evidenced-based<&sol;a> teaching practices that are all needed to support language and information processing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Their responses suggest there is inconsistent or ineffective use of these important practices&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For example&comma; nearly three in five students said teachers rarely or only sometimes listed what students needed to do on the board&period; Almost one in four said their teacher did not consistently check-in with them using verbal prompts to support attention&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>What can we do now&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>We know language processing&comma; attention and working memory are particular areas of difficulty for students with DLD and&sol;or ADHD&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But these differences do not mean lower academic achievement is a natural or inevitable outcome&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Instead&comma; given the prevalence of students in these two groups&comma; it means everyday teaching must be accessible to them&period; And in doing so&comma; it will also make teaching more accessible to everyone in the classroom&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;research&period;qut&period;edu&period;au&sol;accessibleassessment&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;sites&sol;356&sol;2023&sol;11&sol;Poster&lowbar;Tancredi&lowbar;AARE-2023&lowbar;for-printing&period;pdf" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">previous study<&sol;a> in our broader project&comma; we found targeted professional learning can help teachers make their teaching more accessible&comma; including talking less and more simply&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Our future research will look at how we help teachers adopt these strategies and reach teachers in regional and remote schools so all students can benefit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p><em>&ast;names have been changed&period;<&sol;em><&excl;-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag&period; Please DO NOT REMOVE&period; --><img style&equals;"border&colon; none &excl;important&semi; box-shadow&colon; none &excl;important&semi; margin&colon; 0 &excl;important&semi; max-height&colon; 1px &excl;important&semi; max-width&colon; 1px &excl;important&semi; min-height&colon; 1px &excl;important&semi; min-width&colon; 1px &excl;important&semi; opacity&colon; 0 &excl;important&semi; outline&colon; none &excl;important&semi; padding&colon; 0 &excl;important&semi;" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;counter&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;content&sol;234685&sol;count&period;gif&quest;distributor&equals;republish-lightbox-basic" alt&equals;"The Conversation" width&equals;"1" height&equals;"1" &sol;><&excl;-- End of code&period; If you don't see any code above&comma; please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button&period; The page counter does not collect any personal data&period; More info&colon; https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;republishing-guidelines --><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;profiles&sol;haley-tancredi-574462" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Haley Tancredi<&sol;a>&comma; Lecturer &lpar;Inclusive Education&rpar;&comma; <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;institutions&sol;queensland-university-of-technology-847" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Queensland University of Technology<&sol;a><&sol;em>&semi; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;profiles&sol;callula-killingly-1264390" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Callula Killingly<&sol;a>&comma; Postdoctoral Research Fellow&comma; Centre for Inclusive Education&comma; <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;institutions&sol;queensland-university-of-technology-847" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Queensland University of Technology<&sol;a><&sol;em>&comma; and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;profiles&sol;linda-j-graham-125749" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Linda J&period; Graham<&sol;a>&comma; Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education&comma; <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;institutions&sol;queensland-university-of-technology-847" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Queensland University of Technology<&sol;a><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>This article is republished from <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">The Conversation<&sol;a> under a Creative Commons license&period; Read the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;my-brain-leaves-the-room-what-happens-when-teachers-talk-too-much-234685" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">original article<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;

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