The lack of this ability ultimately manifests in a beginning teacher who is unable to effectively teach as a result of the actions and behaviors of students. This paper will describe the use of several organized distractions which force pre-service science teachers to simultaneously teach and observe students. An example, which is later discussed, requires the pre-service teacher to record on a seating chart the movements of a brightly colored piece of paper begin passed by peers during the microteaching lesson. Other examples are also discussed. A familiar analogy may help to illustrate this problem.
Most people can remember their first time driving a car.
Many of us can probably remember the difficulty of trying to roll down the window or to tune the radio and still keep the car pointed in the correct direction at approximately the correct speed. We can perhaps also remember seeing another new driver who could perform these simultaneous tasks and feel that the accomplishment was worthy of note. Later, as our experience with driving increased, most people became capable of completing these tasks and came to think nothing of it. For instance, it is well documented that people can be completely oblivious to obvious sensory events when they are heavily involved in tasks which require a high level of attention. In demonstrating the meaning of this term, Koumin related an example of a teacher who failed to make a corrective action until it was much too late.