* Attention Mapping
Attention Mapping
Each of us lives in a “Psychological Country.”
We might say that Winborne’s country can be represented by an Atlas.
Winborne’s Atlas will include descriptions and tabulations of population, natural resources, cultural proclivities, imports, exports, industrial activities, etc.
One summary Map of Winborne’s Psychological Country is an Attention Map. If Attention represents functional cognizance (sensorial, emotional, mental, intuitive, synthetic) of apprehension/processing/expression, then it may be useful for Winborne’s teachers to have such a Map in hand before assigning learning opportunities.
Winborne’s Map will indicate capacity, ability, and suitability. Here, we keep in mind that Attention may be non-existent (inattention), dispersed, attracted, repulsed, and intentionally/willfully deployed (concentration, metaphorization, divided-and-held).
Such a Map may indicate tendencies toward Authentic Interest, as distinguished from ordinary interests. Here, we define Authentic Interest as inclined to Possibilities of Conscious Evolution. Ordinary interests are often aggregations of various attractions and repulsions, likes and dislikes, pleasures and pains, etc. An Attention Map will specify the various personas (and the conditions wherein they express), the natural resources and liabilities, the habits, the desires, the plans and purposes of
It is difficult to imagine an effective school, which does not make the effort to build Attention maps of each student in the school’s stewardship. Effective, here, is not understood to apply only to those who happen to occupy the space beneath a bell-curve.
Parents, Teachers and Guidance Counselors will help to construct a student’s Attention Map. Continuously, we will ask: What Psycho-Biophysical Functions are the preferred channels of Apprehension/Processing/Expression? (Sensorial, Moving, Feeling, Thinking, Synthetic). Which are avoided? What are the Objects of Attention? What is the extent (time/space/meaning) of attentional deployment? What is the state of Attention during the hours of sleep?
A well-formed Attention Map may indicate the Zone of Proximal Development. This Zone implicates what may and may-not be within the capacity and suitability of an individual student.
A library of similarly-configured Attention Maps, along with associated curricula, may be helpful in assigning learning learning-opportunities. Thus, the learning profiles of historical personages may be seen to approximate that of a current student. Note that this sort of individualized curriculum assignment does not proceed by means of Normative Standards.
It will be the goal of parents, teachers, and guides to transfer Attention Map assessment skills to the student. The primary device, aimed at the accomplishment of self-guidance, is Passive Self-Observation.