Teach17

Pupils are growing up in a world of short videos, constant notifications, instant searches, gaming, group chats and AI-generated answers. Information arrives quickly, changes rapidly and rarely asks them to remain with one idea for very long.

It would be too simple to blame TikTok or declare that an entire generation has lost the ability to concentrate. Young people can focus deeply on things that interest them, just as adults can. The challenge for schools is to help pupils use that focus deliberately, including when learning is difficult, unfamiliar or not immediately entertaining.

Teachers do not need to turn every lesson into a fast-moving sequence of clips, quizzes and activities. Schools can offer something different: time to think, read, question, practise and understand.

1. Treat attention as something pupils can learn

Avoid telling pupils that their generation has a poor attention span. Repeated often enough, this can become an excuse: “I cannot concentrate because that is just how people my age are.”

Instead, present concentration as a skill that improves with practice. Explain that attention can wander and that the important habit is noticing this and returning to the task.

A teacher might say, “We are going to practise working without interruption for eight minutes,” rather than simply telling pupils to concentrate harder.

2. Teach the behaviours that support concentration

“Pay attention” is not always a clear instruction. Pupils may need to be shown what successful attention looks like.

This might include:

• Looking at the relevant speaker, text or demonstration
• Keeping unnecessary objects off the desk
• Listening for a specific piece of information
• Recording a question rather than immediately interrupting
• Noticing when the mind has wandered
• Returning to the task without becoming frustrated

This should not mean expecting every pupil to remain perfectly still. Some pupils concentrate better with movement, a ruler to track text or a carefully chosen sensory aid. The aim is engagement, not complete silence and stillness for their own sake.

3. Start lessons calmly

Pupils often arrive carrying the noise and energy of the corridor, break time or the previous lesson. A calm and predictable opening helps them make the transition into learning.

Have a task ready that pupils can begin without waiting for a long explanation. It might be three retrieval questions, a diagram to label, an error to correct or one problem from the previous lesson.

The task should be achievable but worthwhile. A settled start is not wasted time. It establishes the tone for everything that follows.

4. Use hooks to open learning, not replace it

A surprising image, demonstration, story, object or short video can create curiosity. However, the lesson must move beyond the hook.

A dramatic clip of a bridge collapsing might introduce forces. The deeper learning comes when pupils explain the failure, identify the forces involved, examine evidence and improve their original ideas.

Teachers can use the appeal of short-form content without copying its constant demand for something new.

5. Do not make every lesson faster

A lesson can look energetic while producing very little sustained thought. Too many rapid changes between videos, quizzes, discussions, worksheets and card sorts can leave pupils constantly adjusting to new instructions.

Before changing activity, ask whether the change improves learning. Sometimes pupils need to stay with a calculation, paragraph, source or experiment for longer than feels immediately comfortable.

Pace should mean progress, not speed.

6. Build stamina gradually

Telling a class to work independently for 30 minutes may not succeed if they are used to changing task every few minutes.

Begin with a shorter period of protected concentration and extend it gradually. Tell pupils what they are practising:

“For the next seven minutes, work on these two questions without speaking. I will not interrupt you, and you should not interrupt anyone else.”

Once the class can manage seven minutes well, move to nine, twelve and fifteen. Pupils build confidence because they can see themselves improving.

7. Reduce unnecessary distractions

It is difficult to teach pupils to resist distraction while placing distractions directly in front of them.

Establish clear routines for phones, headphones, smartwatches and school devices. When laptops are being used, specify which page should be open. When they are not needed, close them.

Keep slides simple. Remove decorative animations, unnecessary images and large blocks of competing information. A calm visual environment makes it easier for pupils to identify what matters.

8. Give pupils proper thinking time

Fast questioning can reward the quickest pupil rather than the most thoughtful one.

After asking an important question, pause. Ask everybody to think, jot down an idea or rehearse a response before anyone answers. Make it clear that immediate hands are not required.

A few seconds of silence can feel uncomfortable to a teacher, but it gives more pupils the chance to take part. It also improves the quality of answers because pupils are responding after thought rather than guessing first.

9. Ask questions that cannot be answered instantly

Quick recall questions are useful, but they should not dominate every lesson.

Include questions that require pupils to compare, justify, predict or explain:

• Which explanation is strongest, and why?
• What evidence supports this conclusion?
• What would change if one condition were removed?
• Why is this common answer wrong?
• Which earlier topic connects to this idea?
• What assumption has been made here?

One demanding question can sometimes produce more thinking than ten rapid questions with one-word answers.

10. Model how an expert thinks

Pupils often see only the finished answer. They do not see the choices, mistakes and checks that produced it.

Think aloud as you solve a problem, analyse a source or write an explanation:

“I could use either of these equations, so I will first identify the quantities I have been given.”

“This answer contains the correct fact, but it does not explain why the change happens.”

“This source sounds confident, but I need to check what evidence it gives.”

Modelling the process helps pupils understand that strong thinking is not instant. It involves decisions, checking and revision.

11. Let pupils experience productive difficulty

Online tools can remove struggle immediately. A pupil can search for an explanation, reveal a hint or ask AI to generate an answer before they have properly thought about the problem.

Teachers should support pupils, but not always at the first sign of difficulty. Give them enough time to attempt, fail safely and reconsider.

Useful prompts include:

• What do you already know?
• Which part is causing the difficulty?
• Can you represent the problem another way?
• Which previous example is most similar?
• What could you try first?

The goal is not to leave pupils stuck. It is to stop help arriving so quickly that no thinking is required.

12. Make extended reading normal

Pupils will not become confident readers if every text is reduced to a few bullet points.

Use worthwhile passages and teach pupils how to approach them. Introduce difficult vocabulary, divide longer texts into manageable sections and give pupils a reason to read.

They might read to identify an argument, explain a process, select evidence or compare two viewpoints.

Reading does not have to be silent and unsupported. Teachers can read aloud, model annotation, pause for discussion and revisit difficult sentences. The aim is to help pupils cope with increasingly demanding texts rather than protecting them from them.

13. Teach note-making rather than copying

Copying can keep pupils occupied without requiring them to decide what matters.

Show pupils how to select and reorganise information. They might convert a paragraph into a diagram, reduce an explanation to three sentences, create a comparison table or write a summary from memory.

Model the choices involved:

“This sentence gives useful background, but this phrase contains the main cause, so that is what I need in my notes.”

Good notes are evidence of thought, not simply evidence that a pen has been moving.

14. Return to important knowledge

Fast-scrolling media constantly presents something new. Learning depends on returning to important ideas until they become secure.

Use retrieval practice, cumulative quizzes, spaced homework and questions that combine material from different parts of the course. Ask pupils to recall knowledge before looking it up.

Revisiting should not feel like a punishment or a sign that the class has failed. Explain that forgetting is normal and that retrieving knowledge strengthens it.

A good curriculum should feel connected rather than like a feed of unrelated topics.

15. Teach pupils how to use AI without surrendering their thinking

AI can explain difficult ideas, generate examples, offer feedback and help pupils organise their work. It can also produce confident mistakes and allow pupils to submit work they do not understand.

Teach pupils to use AI after thinking, not instead of thinking.

They might:

• Attempt a question before requesting help
• Ask for a hint rather than a full answer
• Compare an AI response with a trusted source
• Identify weaknesses in an AI-generated paragraph
• Improve an answer and explain the changes
• Check whether cited evidence really exists

Pupils should understand that obtaining an answer is not the same as learning how to produce one.

16. Teach pupils to question what appears in their feeds

Telling pupils not to believe everything online is not enough. They need a repeatable method for checking information.

Encourage them to ask:

• Who created this?
• What is the creator trying to achieve?
• What evidence is provided?
• Is the headline more dramatic than the content?
• Has the image been edited or taken out of context?
• Can the claim be confirmed by another reliable source?
• Could this have been generated by AI?
• What information has been left out?

These habits belong in science, English, history, geography and every other subject in which pupils use evidence.

17. Ask pupils to produce something substantial

A lesson should not always end with pupils having watched, clicked, selected or matched.

Give them regular opportunities to produce something that demonstrates connected thought: an extended explanation, a worked solution, an argument supported by evidence, an analysis of a source, a conclusion or a carefully annotated diagram.

Substantial does not have to mean long. A concise answer can still show careful selection, organisation and judgement.

Pupils are surrounded by tools designed to help them move quickly to the next thing. The classroom should sometimes ask them to stay: to read the second page, make another attempt, improve the first answer and remain with an idea until it begins to make sense.