Remember when teachers insisted that eye contact be maintained with all the students in the classroom? If a student was looking down (and not writing) or away, teachers felt that the student wasn't listening or paying attention. Then they would yell at the student or throw something at them. (Usually a chalk brush in the old days. I suppose in some schools it hasn't changed.)

Now we know that there are other reasons, such as, the teacher is boring, speaks in a monotone, turns their back to the students for most of the class with more attention on the board than the students, gives a class assignment for the period instead of teaching, is afraid of the students (and they can tell), doesn't want to be there (again, students can tell), is thinking of something else (distracted), is in a bad mood, wears weird clothes (distraction), yells at the students, speaks too softly, can't explain a concept, isn't prepared, fumbles around, commands no respect, doesn't challenge the students, or the student is too far away from the board and can't read it, or the student can't hear the teacher properly, or the student doesn't want to be there, or the student has a big worry (not all students come from a happy home life) and is distracted by it, or the student got harassed by another student earlier, and on and on and on...

If the student seem to be inattentive, perhaps the teacher should make a private attempt to find out why.

A caring teacher at an elementary school did some fact-finding with a 10 year old student one day. The student was getting lower and lower marks as time went on. The teacher found that the student couldn't see the board, it was out-of-focus, fuzzy. The student needed glasses and the student and parents didn't realize it. The glasses made the difference and the student is an "A" student now. There is usually a reason. So let's not yell at the student, let's find out the "why".

Oh, The seemingly inattentive student? If they can hear fine, they are usually getting everything that is said. They are simply not acknowledging it by looking at the teacher.

Cheers - Mike