Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus

Over the last four years, the University Writing Program hosted several highly successful book groups focused on exciting new books about teaching and writing. For Fall 2022, we invited participants to explore James Lang’s (2020, Basic Books) Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It. 

 

Distracted: Book Cover

 

Well-known for his earlier important books like Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning (2016) and the follow-up Small Teaching Online (2019 with Flower Darby), Lang published Distracted in the spring of 2020, just as the COVID pandemic shuttered schools and businesses alike. In the wake of such sweeping changes to students’ and teachers’ lives, Lang’s text seems as important as ever as a guide to help us all think through the myriad distractions that are part of our teaching and learning lives. Dr. Lang offers a brief synopsis of Distracted as part of Helix Education’s video series: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reviewers Write:

“Soothing concerns that digital device dependency is degrading American classrooms, Lang contends that although the human brain has evolved to continually seek out novelty, teachers can harness this urge to get students to do the “hard cognitive work” of acquiring new knowledge.”
– Publisher’s Weekly
“Lang … combines theoretical analysis with practical tips on how to cultivate attention in the classroom. Basing his text on the premise that learning occurs in three steps—attending to a new concept, processing it, and being able to retrieve it—Lang demonstrates the interdependence of all three.”
– Library Journal
“The book feels like a spiritual successor to one of Lang’s previous books, Small Teaching. Both books focus on ways that teachers can make small changes to their classrooms and teaching to best reach students. For Distracted, Lang focuses on the ways that attention can be redirected to the lessons being taught as well as to course materials.”
– Jesika Brooks, Tech-Based Teacher @ Medium