Pre-Publication Reviews
We are three weeks out from the publication of Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It. Three of the major sources for pre-publication reviews have been good enough to devote a little space in their pages to the book, and I have also begun my series of articles on distraction and attention in education for the Chronicle of Higher Education. Here are some quick highlights from each of these places.
The first review appeared in Publishers Weekly in mid-August, which gave it a starred review and paired it with an interview they conducted with me about the book.
Highlight: “Lang’s lucid prose and dry wit make for a pleasant reading experience, and his evidence is consistently on-point. Teachers and parents teaching at home will find inspiration and insight in this sterling study of ‘the crucial connection between attention and learning.’”
Next up was Kirkus, which appeared on September 1st.
Highlight: “A professor of English and director of the D'Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption University, Lang is addressing teachers, but he delivers advice with universal applications.”
This was one was followed by a review in Library Journal on October 1st. This one is paywalled, so contact your friendly local librarian to see it in full. Below is their “Verdict,” which concludes the review.
Highlight: “Every educator, from kindergarten teachers to graduate and undergraduate school teachers, struggles with reducing distraction in the classroom. Lang tackles this problem by offering strategies for students and constructive approaches and tools to encourage attentive behavior.”
In September I began my series of articles on attention and distraction in education for The Chronicle of Higher Education, in which my work has been appearing for more than twenty years. This series will provide a basic introduction to some of the core ideas of the book. The first column focuses on the history and biology of distraction. Before we think about solutions to the problem of distraction, we first have to clear the ground of some common misperceptions, and recognize the extent to which student brains—like all brains—are built for both attention and distraction.
Having done that work, the article then gets to the main point of the book as a whole, and the idea that sets up all of the recommendations that will follow:
For too long teachers have thought about attention as the norm, and distraction as the deviation from the norm. Both history and biology teach us that the opposite is true. Periods of sustained attention are like islands rising from the ocean of distraction in which we spend most of our time swimming.
Attention should, thus, be considered an achievement, not something we take for granted in the classroom.
Good teaching involves paying attention to attention, which serves as a foundation for all acts of learning.
The second column in the series, which focuses on the social nature of attention, will appear in the Chronicle on publication day: October 20, 2020.