Many of us struggle to remain focused when there are distractions around us. Try reading a text in a noisy environment and recall what you’ve read afterwards. Chances are that the amount of information you’ve managed to cover has been drastically reduced, studies show that in an environment with visual and auditory distractions, tasks are completed at less than 30% of the coverage when there are no distractions. Whilst this doesn’t apply to everyone – think of teenagers that have loud music playing whilst they study – the vast majority of us need quiet and no physical distractions whilst we work. Now think of the environment where our children learn. a room with over thirty people in it, rarely working in silence offers plenty of distractions that mean learning isn’t optimised. A study in a Canadian classroom in 2024 showed that the range of information acquired and understood was from 8% in the most distracted to 24% in the most dedicated student. Adding the fact that if the teacher gave an equal amount of attention to each individual student in the one hour lesson, they’d receive less than two minutes of time to help clarify and consolidate their learning. Another study tested students’ completion of questions in a test. In unregulated conditions, the students averaged 12 out of 50 correct in one hour compared to 38 out of 50 in a regulated environment where they were the only student and the room was silent.
Of course, we all recognise that we would learn far better on a one to one basis but this is often impractical and, for one to one tuition, very expensive but there is an alternative which can provide the conducive learning environment, be cost effective and still allow socialisation at appropriate times – online education.
Much is made of the negative effect on personal well-being of the isolation of sitting at a screen at home, by oneself with no chance to socialise but it’s helpful to look at the flipside. We’ve already seen that the downside of education in a physical school is the slow progress through the curriculum and it’s really for parents and students to decide if the potential downside of online education is more than made up for by the benefits. At Elea High Online School, our students benefit from focused learning in an environment that engages student minds and allows for interaction between student and student and students and teachers at appropriate times. We’ve found that students who would find it very difficult to focus in a standard classroom, thrive online so, if you’re concerned about how much your child is learning at school, consider online education and, especially Elea High Online School.