YOUNG people focus attention for hours during a football game that they are passionate about, or while watching a nail-biting cricket match, or when they play video games with their eyes glued to the screen. Their interest, laser-sharp focus and relentless engagement begs the question: why can’t we get this kind of attention in our classrooms? Very often, teachers talk about short attention spans as the reason why students cannot sustain attention during lessons. While this may be true to some extent, there is more to the story.
Although there is some research on shorter attention spans, none of it is actually conclusive. In fact, most research on reduced attention spans, over the last few decades, focuses on correlation, not causat
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