Abstract

DOARDI, Davide  and  GANTIER LIMINANI, Nataly. DEFAULT BRAIN FUNCTION: NEURO-BRAIN FUNDAMENTALS FOR INTERVENTION AGAINST DISTRACTION IN THE CLASSROOM. Ajayu [online]. 2020, vol.18, n.2, pp.351-394. ISSN 2077-2161.

Distraction in school classrooms   has always a negative bearing, both on academic and class management indicators. When distraction reaches high levels, the institution, through the Departments of Psychology, forwards the students to outpatient clinicians, from where the students come back to school labeled as ADHD patients. However, sometimes the prevalence and duration of the symptoms commonly associated with ADHD, measured clinically, i.e. using the DSM - V rubric and protocol, do not tally with the indices of prevalence internationally accepted. The easy way out from this predicament is to explain away the perception of the teaching staff, or the methodology followed in gathering the relevant data. A more sensible way of dealing with the data lies in the recognition that widespread, high and tenacious distraction is real, but in need of a  different theoretical framework.  This article illustrates how this predicament can arise with 511 students of secondary level in Bolivia and frames the explanation within the neurocognitive theory of mind wandering; it also points to some interventions based on the control of the focus of attention.

Keywords : attention; default network system; mindfulness; mind wandering.

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