‘Attention is central to learning. However, it is limited, prone to wander, and not naturally attracted to the things we teach in school. As such, we must actively orchestrate it.
One of the ways we can best do this is via ‘attentional cueing’. Cueing is the use of a stimulus to attract attention to a particular thing. For example, using:
• Our environment: Dimming the lights and drawing the blinds can draw student focus to the board (harnessing a kind of ‘cinema effect’).
• Our tech: We can use arrows, colours, live modelling or gradual reveal (just be sure to keep things accessible).
• Our voices: Strategic pauses, repetition, repetition, and changes in tone or cadence can signal key info (see clip below).
• Our bodies: We can point, tap, clap or gesture to direct attention (and even to help flesh out concepts).
Being precise in our cueing is important because (A) novices don’t always know exactly which part of the thing we’re presenting to focus on, (B) there is a cognitive cost to filtering out redundant information, and (C) it helps our more vulnerable students to be even more successful.’
(https://snacks.pepsmccrea.com/p/cueing-attention )
Cueing supports learning by guiding attention to essential information, which helps manage cognitive load and improve the selection, organization, and integration of material in working memory.
How Cueing Supports Learning:
• Directs Attention: Cues draw learners’ eyes and minds to the most relevant parts of instructional materials, such as key terms, diagrams, or specific steps in a process.
• Manages Cognitive Load: By highlighting what is important, cues reduce the need for learners to search for relevant information, which lessens extraneous cognitive load and frees up mental resources for actual learning and comprehension.
• Facilitates Information Integration: Coordinated cues (e.g. a visual element changing colour when its corresponding term is mentioned in a narration) help learners link related information across different formats (text and pictures), which is crucial for building a coherent mental model.
• Enhances Efficiency: Learners can process materials more quickly and efficiently when guided by cues, as they spend less time searching for the correct information.
• Supports Struggling Learners: Cueing is particularly beneficial for novice learners or those with learning difficulties who may not know how to allocate their attention effectively on their own.
Effective Cueing Techniques:
• Visual Cues:
o Arrows
o Colour changes or highlighting
o Shading or spotlight effects
o Bold text or underlining
o Zooming in on relevant areas
o Pictures and diagrams (used appropriately as cues)
• Auditory/Verbal Cues:
o Strategic pauses or changes in voice tone/cadence
o Preview summaries or guiding sentences in text
o Explicit verbal instructions to focus on a specific area
• Physical Cues:
o Gesturing, pointing, or using body language in in-person teaching or video demonstrations
o Hands-on correction to guide physical movement
Important Considerations:
• Be Precise: Cues must direct attention precisely to the most relevant, essential information; cueing irrelevant details can be distracting and unhelpful.
• Consider Learner Expertise: High-prior-knowledge learners may not benefit from explicit cues and might even be hindered by them (known as the “expertise reversal effect”), as they can already direct their own attention effectively.
• Use with Appropriate Methods: In early literacy instruction, for example, the “three-cueing” system (guessing words based on meaning, syntax, or visual cues like pictures) is widely criticized by the “science of reading” research because it encourages guessing rather than systematic decoding of letter sounds. In this context, effective cues support foundational decoding skills, not guessing.
• Coordinate Cues: For multimedia learning, ensuring visual and auditory cues are spatially and temporally coordinated is often more effective than using a single type of cue.
‘Many of us will do lots of this stuff already, but (as with many things in teaching), there’s probably room for us to be even more intentional in our approach. The more precise we are in our cueing, the more our students will learn.’
(https://snacks.pepsmccrea.com/p/cueing-attention)
This blog was written by Bretta Townend-Jowitt, Education Consultant and Trainer.
