How to get kids to pay attention in class

Dr. Monica Wendel of the University of Louisville was working with researchers from Texas A&M on controlling obesity in children.

In an experiment conducted over the summer, they removed the sit-down desks and replaced them with stand-up desks and stools for 300 second, third, and fourth graders. They told the kids it was OK to stand and move around during class. The idea was to get them to burn more calories.

“But it was from what the teachers started telling us that actually led us to understand that something was happening regarding kids paying attention better in class,” Wendel said.

The kids didn’t fidget as much.

So they designed another experiment. Instead of just monitoring the weight of the children who spent the day standing, they also monitored their attention span &#8212 and sure enough…

“For classrooms where students had the opportunity to stand, the level of attention and behavioral engagement was significantly higher than in classrooms that were traditional seated classrooms,” Wendel said.

In fact, the children with stand-up desks spent, on average, seven more minutes per hour paying attention, compared to children sitting down.

“When you elevate the desk, it allows kids, basically, to get out their kinetic energy while still focusing on what’s happening in the classroom,” Wendel said.

Of course, Dr. Monical Wendel has a hidden agenda. It’s been tough to get schools to adopt the stand-up desks for obesity prevention, but if it turns out they also keep kids more disciplined and improve attention &#8212 that might just close the sale.

I even have the motto: Education &#8212 it’s just too important to be taken sitting down.