ABSTRACT
Graham Nuthall, a New Zealand researcher, filmed hundreds of hours of students learning in the classroom for his great book, The Hidden Lives of Learners. Consider a conservative estimation of how long they spend each day giving explanations in the classroom. Then think about how much planning time we give over to those very same explanations. He analysed the minutiae of giving memorable explanations and the voluntary, and the often involuntary, attention of our students. The act of explaining is not as simple as handing over the baton of knowledge. The attention of our students is influenced by an array of factors, including the trust and interest each student invests in their teacher, the actions of their friends, the limits of their vocabulary and working memory, and so much more. Learning can prove messy and what sticks in our students' memory is sometimes an inadvertent and haphazard affair.
