PA announcements, incoming phone calls, unscheduled staff visits, tardy students, fire drills, singing telegrams …

These are just some of the many external interruptions that have become part and parcel of classroom teaching. And sure, they can be endlessly annoying -- but there’s a bigger issue at stake:

Just how much do these external disruptions impact student learning and performance?

In my newest 'From Theory to Practice' video, I examine a research article that aims to answer this very question:

The Big Problem with Little Interruptions to Classroom Learning (Matthew A. Kraft and Manuel Monti-Nussbaum, May 2020)

Here are some of the questions I tackle in this installment:

• ·        On average, how many external interruptions occur during a normal school day … and how much learning time is lost as a result?
• ·        According to the research, do regular disruptions correlate to poorer learning performance?
• ·        What are three big ideas for teachers when it comes to combating external interruptions?
• ·        If you think interruptions might be a problem in your school, what steps can you take to document/mitigate the problem?

You can watch the full video here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsJwFPoCIBU