7-minute illusion in education

We often tend to believe that a student's mind cannot focus beyond 7 minutes. Maximum 10 minutes. Beyond this time, the human mind fundamentally stops understanding anything coming towards it. There is some half-hearted research as well which hints the same. Some ed-tech companies have taken it very seriously and are even designing their products accordingly.

Is the world-conquering human brain so weak?

If the brain is not capable of focusing on education for more than 7 minutes, then how can it focus on a movie for 3 hours?

Then how can it focus on a computer game for hours. If you ask a child to stop playing, he will say, “10 mins more” but this 10 mins will never end.

Then how come a painter gets lost for hours in painting a masterpiece?

A Weird Different World

If the human mind could really not focus beyond 7 mins,?many things would be different drastically.

Alexander, the great, starts a fierce battle. His hungry sword, red with blood, is dancing all around. But after 7 minutes, he loses focus. In fact, even others lose focus. All go for some rest and come back. The process keeps repeating.

Movies will have intervals after every 7 mins.

Viswanathan Anand who keeps thinking about a chess move for hours as of now will take a break after every 7 minutes.

Brains of high frequency traders in the financial market would literally explode and they would die as they have to focus on work day after day for long hours.

In the examination hall, students will go on breaks after every 7 minutes.

Why this Illusion for Education?

Suppose you are forced to watch a badly made movie or a movie in an unknown language. How long can you tolerate it?

Suppose you are playing a game you totally hate, how long can you bear it?

You go to a stand-up comedy show and you are bored in 7 minutes, what does that mean? On the contrary, if you lose track of time, what does thaaaaat mean?

You got my point. Brain fails to focus more than 7 minutes on boring, non-relevant things. Not otherwise.

100s of crores of rupees, some very talented crew and months/years of hard work go into making a 2 to 3 hours movie. Months/years of intense research, some of the best engineers, tons of money go into making computer games.?

What goes into preparing a lecture for students?

In fact, for the last few generations, the best people don’t even like coming to the education sector due to low salaries and declining respect (read).

Also teaching is considered merely about knowing the subject. It however requires a deep understanding of psychology of students and knowledge of theatre (read).

Due to all this, the quality of teaching around is not top-notched many times. When one tests the ability of the human brain with this quality, 7-minutes is all one can get. It’s like using a faulty thermometer to test body temperature.

Well...

If we cannot engage a student for more than 7 minutes, let’s not blame the human brain on the recipient side. Someone rightly said, if a student is sleeping, it’s the system which needs to wake up.

The 7-minute theory is rather dangerous for mankind. When you really do something intensely, you hate interruptions. Ask any good engineer, painter, musician, etc. Think about it,?you are enjoying a movie but a break comes every 7 minutes…..what do you feel at those moments? Same goes with learning if it’s provided the right way.

Education (especially for teens) must compete with the following things to get space in learner’s mind

• 44,942 Facebook employees who are trying to make social media more & more addictive. Plus other social media platforms.
• High number of video game designers. Plus other sports.
• Opposite sex, of course.

All of these are able to get much more than 7-min focus of the student. If proper efforts are put, education will also be able to do the same.