THE PROBLEM FACED BY AN INSTRUCTOR IS NOT ONLY HOW TO FIRST GAIN A LEARNER’S ATTENTION but how to hold it throughout a course or lesson. The goal is to spend more time directing students attention than attaining it. According to Keller attention can be gained in two ways-perceptual arousal and inquiry arousal(Keller, 1983) Perceptual arousal comes from using surprise or uncertainty to gain interest. Inquiry arousal stimulates curiosity by posing challenging questions or problems to be solved. 

Keller goes on to describes six strategies for gaining and maintaining attention. They are:

The first strategy is to use specific examples to grab your learner’s interest. This may be by using distinct visual stimuli related to the topic or to introduce or highlight a topic by using examples such as stories or biographies. The goal is to grab your learner’s attention by tying the topic to concrete examples.

Using this strategy instructors may pose facts or statements that run contrary to their learner’s previous experiences, or play devils advocate while discussing the subject to be covered. The goal is to stimulate interest by taking a novel or contradictory point of view while exploring a topic.

This strategy may involve using a joke as an introduction to your material or using a pun or a running gag while delivering material that may overlap or become redundant. You want to break up monotony and maintain interest by lightening up the subject. Just remember that your goal is to hold your learner’s attention, not to become a stand up comedian. Too much humor may distract from your main topic

An instructor may use variability by incorporating a combination of methods in presenting material. An example would be to have the learners read an article or watch a video, then divide the classroom into groups to review the material and to answer questions posed by it. By using a change in the instructional format you can both stimulate and maintain interest in a subject. 

This strategy may involve learners role playing or the use of games or simulations to get them involved in the material. It also may involve hands on learning by students working in a lab or teaming up to do research.

Inquiry is used to stimulate curiosity by posing questions or problems for students to solve. It may involve students brainstorming to come up with solutions to the lesson or letting them select topics for projects that they already have interest in.

As you can see there are a variety of strategies to use when attempting to gain or sustain your learner's attention. Gaining your learner's attention is relatively easy; the key is to grab and then maintain their attention at an optimal level, having them neither bored by the instruction nor overstimulated by it. The strategy selected should focus on the task at hand and not distract or confuse your subjects.

For More Information about Keller's ARC'S Model of Motivation:

Keller's ARC'S Model- Relevance
Keller's ARC'S Model- Confidence
Instructional Design, by Smith, P. L., & Ragan, T. J. (1993)
Systematic Training Program Design by S. Gordon


David Wesselhoff
Educational Technology Graduate Student
Fall 1998