Attention
The art of noticing
© 2014 Commonwealth of Australia through the Australian Government Department of Education.
This material may be used, reproduced in material form and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes until 31 December 2018, provided all copyright notices and acknowledgements are retained.
Attention, the art of noticing, is at the root of all the other executive functions such as impulse
inhibition, working memory and mental flexibility. Your success at anything is a direct result of what
you pay attention to, and how well you use your attention to take action. You can build your powers
of attention over time, you just need to practise.
Stop
Attention is closely related to impulse inhibition. The first thing to practise is stopping whatever
you're doing, and taking a moment to think. Most of what we do in a day is completely automatic,
and we only notice the really crazy things. But this means we tend to overlook all sorts of
opportunities and insights.
So get in the habit of stopping yourself or your students, even if it's at completely random times. Just
the act of stopping buys you some time to look around and think.
Notice
Once you've stopped, you need to notice what's going on around you. That means using your
senses: what do you see, hear, feel? You don't have to have any reason for doing this! You don't
have to have a goal! To start with, all you need to do is notice things!
That said, there are questions you can ask yourself that tend to lead to interesting answers.
"What exactly do I see/hear/feel right now?
What's causing that?
What am I doing right now? Why am I doing it?
What are they doing right now? Why are they doing it?
How do I feel right now? What’s making me feel like this? Could I feel better? Or worse?
Am I doing the right thing?
What is working right now? What is not working right now?
What led to this situation? What will happen next?
How often does this happen?"
Notice that none of these questions has a point. You have to trust that the act of noticing is its own
point. It may trigger a rush of thoughts and ideas but if not it doesn't matter. You're not going to
have an amazing insight every time you stop and notice yourself brushing your teeth. But there will
come a time when you notice something important that you had overlooked, or when something
you noticed a long time ago pops back into your head and is suddenly super-important.
© 2014 Commonwealth of Australia through the Australian Government Department of Education.
This material may be used, reproduced in material form and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes until 31 December 2018, provided all copyright notices and acknowledgements are retained.
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Compare and contrast
A really powerful way to notice things is to compare and contrast them. If you look at an apple, you
might just see an apple like you always do. But if you put the apple next to a kiwi fruit, or a
calculator, or a zombie, then you might notice a lot more about that apple than you saw before.
Notice, like you're smart and capable
It's easy to get stuck in thinking that most of your life is just something that happens to you and
there's not much you can do about it. But that's not true. There's always something you can do to
change a situation, and small changes can have surprisingly big impacts. So when you're noticing
things, assume for a moment that you are smart and capable and that, if you wanted, you could find
a way to change anything you noticed.
Notice, like you're an artist, or a scientist, or a leader
If you stop right now and spend a minute noticing what's going on around you, you might find that
you are flooded with new ideas. Or you might get 30 seconds in and think, 'What's the point of this?'
and then go on with whatever it was you were doing.
If you need a point to justify noticing, then just imagine that you are an artist, a scientist or a leader.
 As an artist, imagine you had to make something from whatever is around you. What might
you make? How might you do it? Who might be the audience? How might they feel? What’s
this like (can I think of a good analogy?
 As a scientist, imagine you had to make an explanation or a prediction about whatever you
notice. What is causing this thing? What will happen next? What might happen if you
changed something?
 As a leader, imagine you needed to influence the people around you in some way? What
might you want them to do? How might you get that to happen?
© 2014 Commonwealth of Australia through the Australian Government Department of Education.
This material may be used, reproduced in material form and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes until 31 December 2018, provided all copyright notices and acknowledgements are retained.
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Think
So you've stopped, noticed a bunch of details in the world around you. So what? What do you do
with everything you've noticed?
You don't have to do anything. Don't get stuck thinking that everything has to have an immediate
purpose or benefit.
But you can play with whatever you've noticed by thinking about it in particular ways.
 You can change properties – What if this was bigger or smaller? Brighter or darker?
Crowded or empty?
 You can predict causes and effects – Why is this happening now? What will happen next?
 You can evaluate – Is this good or bad? How might it be better? How did it get like this?
You don't have to be too in control of your thinking. Often it's good to just bounce around thoughts
and see what comes to mind.
Do
Finally, after all that noticing and thinking, it's time to take action.
One thing you can do is capture what you've noticed in notes or sketches. Pretty much anyone who
does anything interesting makes lots of notes or sketches. You may or may not ever look back at
them, but the act of recording them helps lock them in your brain (similarly to a photograph you
keep to remember an event), and also often leads to other ideas.
You might also want to set a new goal or make a plan, based on something you've noticed. In that
case it's doubly important to capture your thoughts, and then quickly set a small goal or reminder so
you can take action soon, before you forget this moment entirely.
Tips for teachers
Types of directed attention
Teachers direct student attention all day long. However, it's important to provide experience with
different types of attention.
© 2014 Commonwealth of Australia through the Australian Government Department of Education.
This material may be used, reproduced in material form and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes until 31 December 2018, provided all copyright notices and acknowledgements are retained.
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Narrow attention to solve an immediate problem
Narrow attention is associated with solving immediate problems and providing targeted instruction.
"Turn your attention to me, I'm going to show you how to do something. Now turn your
attention back to your work."
Many teachers are well versed in this kind of attention control, and it is worth re-emphasising how
important these instructions, demonstrations and transitions are in classroom practice. By directing
attention, these methods help students manage the complexity of their learning.
Roaming attention to explore features of interest
Roaming attention is associated with exploration, discovery and creativity. This type of directed
attention is used less strategically in schools than the problem-solving type of attention.
Roaming attention is where you offer students a prompt but then pause before progressing with any
strategies, solutions or answers. Instead you spend time roaming around the prompt, seeing what
you notice. Teachers have many opportunities to value, model and practice this type of directed
attention. Doing so helps build student self-efficacy and flexibility.
Using roaming attention in class
You can incorporate this more exploratory type of attention easily by presenting students with
something new and then holding off on giving any information about it. All you need to do is ask,
'What do you notice about this? What can you say about it?' Some students may require more
support than others, depending on their experiences. Some also may benefit from a teacher, parent
or carer explicitly modelling this type of thinking.
It's very important not to let the students feel like they are trying to second-guess you or find a trick
answer. You can begin by directing student attention to the most superficial features of the prompt,
capture these, and then demonstrate deeper questions.
This technique can be applied to any classroom activity.
For instance, with English, introducing Shakespeare:
"Let's look at this passage. What do you see? How long is it? How long is each line? Do the
lines continue on from each other? Are they broken? Is that the way we normally write?
Where do you see that type of writing? Why would this passage be like that? Is it deliberate?
Why do we ever choose to write one way over another? What about the language and the
words used here? What kind of words are they? Have you seen them before? What if we
compare this to a couple of other types of writing – how do they look next to each other?
What if I read this passage aloud? Close your eyes and listen: how does it sound?"
© 2014 Commonwealth of Australia through the Australian Government Department of Education.
This material may be used, reproduced in material form and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes until 31 December 2018, provided all copyright notices and acknowledgements are retained.
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With Maths, introducing functions:
"Here's a graph. What do you see? Describe this line. What does it do? Describe these axes:
What do they measure? How far do they go? If x is this, what is y? If x is that, then what is y?
How would you describe the pattern? Do you ever see patterns like that in real life?"
This practice of roaming attention is critical for developing a strategic, self-directed approach to
learning in students. In addition, the type of classroom discussion that comes from this process helps
students develop a vocabulary for analysing aspects of the world around them.
Take art beyond the art class
Paying attention is only half the value of noticing. The other half of the value is in capturing what you
notice. The processes of art are incredibly valuable, particularly sketching and writing. Students can
be shown that art is not just about decoration and entertainment, but is also about exploration,
insight and communication. By taking the time to sketch or write about what they see, students can
gather the data necessary for understanding.
Students need to learn that the technical quality of their sketches or writing is not important for this
process, but they also need to be shown how to sketch and write systematically, with exploratory
intent. This process is also foreign to many teachers, so it may help to consult some of the creative
design resources listed below.
Expertise boosts perception
One of the benefits of building personal knowledge and expertise is that it gives you a higherresolution perception of the world – you see more. Dog enthusiasts see a lot more detail in dogs
than other people. Architects and builders see a lot more in a bolt or a gutter than normal people
do. So it is helpful to show students how different parts of their knowledge can be brought to bear
on an observation.
Tips for parents and carers
The best thing you can do as a parent or carer is practise noticing for yourself, and then sharing that
with your children. The rule of thumb is always to value it, model it for your kids, and help them put
it into practice.
So the more you stop and notice, the better you will get at it and the more you will show that you
value it. You can stop and notice anything with your kids, and again it is important to show that this
practice doesn't necessarily have a point or an answer – you do it because it's interesting.
Try to acknowledge and extend on your child's observations. Build a conversation around it, and
bring other pieces of knowledge or experience to bear. However, do be careful about 'jumping to an
answer' and short-cutting your child's opportunity for a more meandering exploration.
© 2014 Commonwealth of Australia through the Australian Government Department of Education.
This material may be used, reproduced in material form and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes until 31 December 2018, provided all copyright notices and acknowledgements are retained.
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Resources
Supporting worksheet available on the myfuture website
 The art of noticing
Sources of information
Getzels, JW & Csikszentmihalyi, M 1976, The creative vision: a longitudinal study of problem finding
in art, Wiley, New York
Horowitz, A 2013, On looking: eleven walks with expert eyes, Scribner, New York
Dennett, DC 2013, Intuition pumps and other tools for thinking, Penguin, United Kingdom
Deborah, S & Sheth S 2009, Mindful teaching and teaching mindfulness: a guide for anyone who
teaches anything, Wisdom Publications, Somerville USA.
Lobato, J, Rhodehamel, B & Hohensee, C 2012, '"Noticing" as an alternative transfer of learning
process', Journal of the learning sciences, 21(3), 433–482.
Lobato, J, Hohensee, C & Rhodehamel, B 2013, 'Students' mathematical noticing', Journal for
research in mathematics education, 44(5), 809–850.
Dawson, P & Guare, R 2010, Executive skills in children and adolescents: a practical guide to
assessment and intervention, The Guilford Press, New York.
Kaufman, C 2010, Executive function in the classroom: practical strategies for improving performance
and enhancing skills for all students, Brookes Publishing Company, Baltimore.
Dan Meyer’s blog, http://blog.mrmeyer.com
© 2014 Commonwealth of Australia through the Australian Government Department of Education.
This material may be used, reproduced in material form and communicated free of charge for non-commercial
educational purposes until 31 December 2018, provided all copyright notices and acknowledgements are retained.
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