by Joan Inong

Created on: August 24, 2009

Students who are able to concentrate well in school are better equipped for academic success. Though teachers may find it difficult to enforce concentration and productiveness at all times, there are a few basic activities that can help you help your students improve their concentration skills.

1. Use puzzles, mazes, and other brain teasers to make your students focus on one activity, with peace and quiet. Encourage your students to work on their own; if they work together, they will not focus their complete attention to the task at hand. Choose puzzles that are appropriate for your students' ages and grade level. Moreover, you do not have to choose puzzles that completely capture the interest of your students. Instead, mix up the types of puzzles you give, so that there are some interesting ones and there are some really difficult (almost "impossible") ones. The ones that are more frustrating will require more attention and concentration.

2. Give your students problems that deal with critical thinking skills. When you think of concentration, you might not think that it is immediately related to critical thinking. However, it really is. Critical thinking means that your students have to go outside of the box in order to find the answers they are looking for. Concentration works the same way. In order to think out of the box, students have to concentrate very hard. If you are a math teacher, give your students word problems that can be applied to real-life situations. If you are an English teacher, give your students a comprehension-reading task. If you are a science teacher, give your students a problem, and have them develop a hypothesis and experiment.

3. When your students are working on problems, do not provide them with any hints or answers. Give them all the materials that they will need, but allow them to work on their own. Any interference from you or from other students may cause disturbance in concentration. If your students ask you for help, tell them that they must complete the task on their own. Make sure that the learning environment is as "learning-friendly" as possible: this means, no distractions!

Concentration activities usually involve other skills, such as writing, reading, critical thinking, or problem-solving. However, the ability to concentrate well depends largely on your students and on what type of environments they need to achieve their potential. So, give them the environment, and then encourage your students' learning process by creating activities that foster all types of thinking.

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