This week in seminar we read
Chapter two in Professor Wendy Ostroff’s book Understanding How Young
Children Learn and the scientific article by Penelope Cousens and Kenneth
Nunn, entitled Is ‘Self-Regulation’ a More Helpful Construct than
‘Attention’? Chapter two focuses mainly on the concepts of attention,
self-regulation, meditation, and executive control, among others. The
additional article focuses on questioning if self-regulation is the answer to
many diagnoses of ADD and ADHD.
First
off, what does ‘attention’ mean? In both of our readings, the authors provided
the reader with a definition of ‘attention’. Attention, according to Professor
Ostroff, means “is the mechanism we use to bring certain things to our
conscious awareness and to quiet or ignore others” (Ostroff 54). In the Cousens
and Nunn article, using a definition by Churchland and Sejnowski, they defined
it as “…focusing of consciousness on some part of the multitude of stimuli from
the environment-a reductionist process in line with the constraints of the
human brain (Cousens and Nunn 28). So, then comes the question, is it
(attention) important to have in order to be successful in school? After
reading chapter two, the article, and a peer-reviewed article, I have found
that that the answer is yes. In my peer-reviewed article, “ Relating Kindergarten
Attention to Subsequent Development Pathways of Classroom Engagement in
Elementary School by Linda S. Pagani, Caroline Fitzpatrick, and Sophie Parent,
it proves that a strong sense of attention at an early age will help the
student in their future academic endeavors. Pagani, Fitzpatrick, and Parent,
focus on a study that was done in disadvantaged parts of Montreal, Canada, in
which,
“teachers rated children’s
classroom engagement behaviors using an 8-item scale: plays and works
cooperatively with other children at a level appropriate for age; demonstrates
self control; shows self-confidence; follows directions; completes work on
time; works independently; capable of making decisions; follows rules and task
instructions. Potential responses ranged from 1 (never) to 5 (always)…” (Pagani,
Fitzpatrick, Parent article).
The article goes on to say that the results went on to
conclude that if a child had higher ratings in each category, then they did
well in later schooling, and vice versa for the lower ratings. The authors went
on to say, “Kindergarten attention, being singled out as an important predictor
of first and third grade math and reading achievements, highlights its value in
conceptual models of school readiness and assessment” (Pagani, Fitzpatrick,
Parent article).
A-not-B Task with a 10 month old (Shown in class/mentioned in Professor Ostroff's book)
Topics Brought up in seminar:
1.
Meditation
2.
“Movement Enhancing Attention”
3.
ADD and ADHD Diagnosis Age
4.
Incorporating Technology (to aid with
attention-games)
5.
Private Speech
6.
Attention connected to Emotion
7.
Meta-Attention
8.
Processing Speed
As you can see, we covered a multitude of topics in our
seminar. I feel that the most important subjects covered that represented the
reading were meditation, “movement enhancing attention”, ADD and ADHD diagnosis
age, and private speech in executive control.
Meditation was the first topic in
our seminar discussion. Lela H. asked, “should we incorporate meditation time
into the day to help our students? Stepping back into the chapter in Understanding
How Young Children Learn, Professor Ostroff cites Anand, Chhina, and
Singh’s findings on meditation’s physical and medical effects on the brain. She
writes, “brain activity is altered due to the practice of meditation.
Meditation increases regional blood flow in the key brain areas for attention
and emotions. It also activates the neural structures involved in arousal and
autonomic nervous system control”(Ostroff 61). Knowing the physical benefits of
meditation on the brain and how it could be used in self-regulation training, we
all came to the conclusion that meditation was beneficial in our classrooms. Stemming off from that question, I
asked, could meditation really work with younger students (example of the
Japanese Kindergarteners doing meditation in class)? Does it actually work and
do they take it seriously enough to let it do its job? We felt that we could do
meditation with Kindergarteners/younger students just as long as we “angled the
activity so that they would be able to understand” (Sarah F.), using techniques
like “rainbow meditation” mentioned in the book (Ostroff 67). As a group, we believe that if we as
educators made it more relatable to our students, they would be more inclined
to participate. Lastly, we felt that older students would be less willing to
participate or take it seriously than the younger students. It was at this
moment in the seminar that Rebecca J. shared her experience in high school with
meditation. She said that meditation that was done in her class appeared to
have worked for her and her classmates (centering them, getting them ready to
learn, etc).
Scientific American-How Does Meditation Change the Brain?
Kindergarten Class Meditating
The next important topic that we
discussed in seminar was “movement enhancing attention”. Kaylyn M asked, “due
to cuts to physical education how might you incorporate strenuous activity into
your daily lessons? We as a collective group felt that we should try a variety
of different kinds of lessons incorporating things like Around the World, the
Fly Swatter games, as well as have plenty of outside time during our lessons. Makayla
G. made a valid point that it is hard to focus when one is stressed, so if we
did decide to use games/movement activities, “… we would need to somehow take
the competition out and the fear of disappointment”. She told us about her
experiences doing games like Around the World and how she was didn’t like the
competition aspect/being put on the spot. I added that another idea to incorporate movement into our
daily lessons would be taking our children outside, go through spelling lists
or math while completing reps of sit ups or push ups, etc. In this way our
students get physical education time in and are working on the core subjects.
There have been numerous studies that have found that movement helps maintain a
healthy body and also that helps the functions of the brain. In the book, Understanding
How Young Children Learn, Professor Ostroff cites Mattson 2004, when she
writes about the benefits of movement on the brain, “Physical activity provides
healthy stress for the brain. Just like exercising you muscles, physical
movement followed by recovery promotes brain adaptation and growth, allowing
the brain to respond to future challenges” (Ostroff 81). I agree with the group
that movement in our lessons is very beneficial to the child as a whole, if
done right.
The subject of ADD, ADHD, and
diagnosis age then came up. The some people of our seminar group thought that
we shouldn’t simply medicate students simply because they can sit still. Most
of us understand that young kids can’t sit still for long periods of time. I then
spoke of my experience volunteering in a second grade classroom this year and
how a few children, who can’t sit still actually prefer to stand up while
working on their class work (which seems to help them focus on the task at
hand). After, Rebecca J. suggested
that a better age to be diagnosed would be around seventh grade; instead of the
young age she was tested for them (third grade). I thought that it was
interesting that in the Cousens and Nunn article, that they were questioning
whether or not self-regulation was the true issue behind the diagnoses of ADD
and ADHD. I agree with the age that Rebecca J. suggested because like Cousens
and Nunn suggested, the diagnosis could be more of a self-regulation issue as
opposed to a more serious thing going on in the brain. I began to wonder, if it
is an issue of self-regulation, couldn’t the child in question train their
self-regulation, with help, and get better without medicine. A majority of the
group felt that there needed to be clearer guidelines when diagnosing both ADD
and ADHD. We finished by talking about how some parents want something to be
wrong with their children and a personal diagnosis story from Makayla G.
The last important subject brought
up in seminar was private speech. Makayla G asked, “In understanding the power that we as
future teachers having in the allowance of private speech, what kind of
threshold do you think you will have for private speech in your classroom? How
could you allow private speech but also make sure that one student’s private
speech is not getting in the way of another child's attention?” Our group came
to the consensus that we would avoid hindering the private speech of our
students. We understood after reading that we, as future educators, play a huge
role in private speech. In Understanding How Young Children Learn,
Professor Ostroff writes, “teachers’ views of private speech are important,
because research shows that teachers can actively support or hinder private
speech based on their beliefs and practices” (Ostroff 74). We suggested
classroom organization and setting ground rules for private speech at the
beginning of the year, as ways to help support private speech. Steve V. suggested
that we could model examples of our own private speech to our students. Finally,
letting out students know that if a group mate’s private speech is too loud,
that they are more than welcome to sit somewhere else, i.e. move their desks or
sit at the back table.
Example of Private Speech- 4 years old
Works
Cited
Cousens, Penelope, and Kenneth
Nunn. "Is 'Self-Regulation' a More Helpful Construct than
'Attention'?" SAGE Social Science Collections, n.d. Web.
Ostroff, Wendy L.
"Understanding Children's Attention." Understanding How Young
Children Learn: Bringing the
Science of Child Development to the Classroom. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2012. 54-87. Print.
Pagani, Linda, Caroline Fitzpatrick, and
Sophie Parent. "Relating Kindergarten Attention To
Subsequent Developmental Pathways Of
Classroom Engagement In Elementary School." Journal Of Abnormal Child Psychology 40.5 (2012): 715-725. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Mar.
2014.
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