How can teachers get their students to “pay attention” in the secondary school classroom? What teaching techniques can boost engagement?

In this special episode, we sit down with the world-renowned teacher Ross Morrison McGill to discuss what he learnt about student attention and motivation while writing his new book, The Teacher Toolkit Guide to the Science of Learning (Bloomsbury, 2026).

The episode is packed with practical tips for the secondary school classroom to help teachers boost student attention and motivation, with lots of examples to boot. We touch upon the role of metacognition, including what it actually means in practice, and describe some metacognitive techniques.

Ross’ new book studies research from fMRI scans to understand brain activity and how students’ brains respond in the classroom. As such, in conversation with SecEd editor Pete Henshaw, Ross considers the biggest barriers to students “paying attention” in the classroom and outlines common factors that make them stop paying attention. He offers his top tips and common mistakes to avoid.

We touch too upon motivation and engagement, discussing how we can motivate our young people in their learning and Ross’ preferred techniques for engaging them in lessons.

The episode includes a range of best practice advice, lessons learned and tips for teachers based on fMRI research.

Ross has kindly offered listeners of the SecEd Podcast access to a free resource – a month-by-month plan to help you embed revision skills with your students: Access this here.