At my school with have a research club among the teachers. 

We read articles or extracts over a two-week period, and then meet to discuss any impact we have found for our practice and anything else it has prompted us to reflect on. 

We recently read a section from Understanding How We Learn: a visual guide about attention (chapter 6 in part 2). 

Quick read: Why we should teach the ‘why’ before the ‘how’ in maths

Quick listen: Why maths A level is the ticket to a top university

Want to know more? Why changing the curriculum never works

The chapter refers to the “increased saliency theory” of attention, which basically states that attention shifts so that different things become salient. 

One of the big take aways from this section is that “the likelihood that a student will pay attention is determined in part by the saliency of the material”. 

As we know, attention is the gatekeeper of learning - you can only learn that to which you have given the necessary attention to - and so for me, anything we can do to capture attention is going to have gains in our classrooms.

The same section notes that saliency comes from many sources, not all of which are in the teacher’s direct control. However, things like how much meaning learners can make from the material, the way information is presented, colours, and sounds are all at least partially within a teacher’s control. 

This got me thinking about what I do in order to make content salient in the classroom, and what I might do better.

Supporting meaning-making

It is my natural approach (well, it is now, after years of cultivating it) to introduce new ideas in a way that I hope will allow my pupils to make sense of the idea, and build on their understanding of previous ideas. 

Whether it is use of a familiar representation/manipulative, a well-sequenced example set, or just making really explicit and continuously reinforcing certain aspects of the idea.

Use of language

I sometimes find that my explanations drag on, occasionally bringing in tangential information, or alternatively just explaining and then re-explaining in different ways.

While I am sure this is helpful for some pupils, for others I strongly suspect they are struggling to decide what is particularly salient out of all the things I am saying, and either losing attention or giving their attention to surface features of an idea rather than the deeper features.  

I definitely need to work on saying less - not because there is anything wrong with teachers talking too much, but because I am not convinced that everything I am saying is drawing attention to what I need to be drawing attention to. 

Using questions

While my explanations can sometimes be overly verbose, I do tend to break them up well with questions. Furthermore, these questions are often directed at the really salient prior information that is informing the new idea. 

Whether this is supporting pupils in making a logic step, or expecting pupils to fill in stages that relate to mathematics they have learned, my own observations and the observations of others suggest that my questioning is playing an important role in directing pupils’ attention to the right places.

Using colour

Because I tend to use a black background, I have somewhat limited the colours I can use to write on it. Blue and red don’t show up well if there is a bit too much light in the room, so I often resort to the green to draw on the whiteboard. 

What this means is that I can’t use colour as much to draw attention to key ideas. I do a bit better when writing maths on the ordinary whiteboard, but I just tend to pick up whatever colour pen is nearest (or working) and occasionally just using two colours. 

Other than trying not to mix green and red, I am not deliberate in my use of colour, and I think I could use colour better both in my prepared materials and annotations to make the salient information stand out.

Pitch

Over the years I have developed a good sense of the mathematical journey that pupils are on, and what the next steps are in that journey. This allows me (generally) to pitch the content and challenge of the lesson at the right place for most pupils. 

Obviously, this is most effective when I have worked with a class for a while, but even with classes I am fairly new to I can normally feel whether the level of challenge is right, and quickly adjust when it isn’t. 

I am fully aware that this is purely down to my strategic knowledge - having worked in schools for nearly 15 years I am at that point where a lot of these things are now embedded in my practice whereas they wouldn’t be for a new teacher.

Presentation

This is two-fold. I am aware that my actual handwriting and diagram drawing aren’t great, but pupils tend to get used to it.

What I am more aware of is the placement of my questions, diagrams, annotations and modelling and so on can be a little haphazard at times and not designed deliberately enough to really draw attention to the most salient information. 

I need to work on thinking through in advance how much space and where different things will be placed to really draw attention to what is going on.

These are areas I am going to work on over the coming weeks and months, and also I am going to continue to think about other things that affect the saliency of mathematical ideas in the classroom, and what I can do to make sure the right things are seen as salient by my pupils.

Peter Mattock is director of maths and numeracy at Brocklington College in Leicestershire. He tweets @MrMattock