I'm interested in knowing what you think about the hours spent in school and the best use of time for optimum learning for primary and secondary students. For instance, should schools consider starting the day earlier for primary students and finishing earlier and starting later for secondary students due to adolescents need for more sleep?
As well, why do we use time to measure students learning? Why is knowing an answer fast better than knowing it slower with perhaps deeper understanding? We give students the same amount of time on tests yet some students may need longer to process the information and then provide a more considered response.
Aside from the practicalities, and traditional ways of operating why aren't we questioning our use of time further?
Dear Gloria,
The following data may be of interest:
Is there enough time to learn in school?
Yes, Time Matters. As common sense would suggest, learning takes time. All other things being equal, places where students get more school hours with “time on task” are places where students tend to learn more.
4.3 School Hours: Is There Enough Time To Learn? | ED100
ed100.org/lessons/schoolhours
Why do students need more time on task?
As common sense would suggest, learning takes time. All other things being equal, places where students get more school hours with “time on task” are places where students tend to learn more.
4.3 School Hours: Is There Enough Time To Learn? | ED100
ed100.org/lessons/schoolhours
How much time should your child spend studying, including?
A majority of kids spend eight to 10 hours in school, two hours attending to homework, over an hour travelling to and from school, two to three hours in extra tuition, and about eight hours ...
How much time should your child spend studying, including ...
www.thenewsminute.com/article/how-much-time-should- …
Where does the time spent in school come from?
Content in the report, “Time and Learning in Schools: A National Profile,” is based largely on 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) data, the only nationally representative source for identifying variations in the amount of time students spend in public, private and charter schools.
It's Not the Time Spent in School, It's How It's Used
education.uconn.edu/2011/07/05/its-not-the-time-spent-i …
maybe the point is we overuse the time,instead of asking how do we spend our time. (we obtain several hours off at work and this does not happen at school? it may be different)
Yes, I agree we may well ask how we spend the time we are given as teachers? Why was it useful, even essential for our students to make time to attend our classes? How were they provoked to think differently? What new thinking was generated? What could have been provided just as easily online?
A sound response to a time question!
Thanks Len. Difficult to compare time spent in schools because more time doesn't necessarily equate to greater learning. We 'waste time. What does that mean?
What if teachers used carefully crafted provocations in every session so that 'thinking' not homework spilled over and met the next session in deep discussions with peers?
How do you assess learning with respect to time? If students can perform well on a timed test does it mean they have learned it? How do you understand that something has been learned?
Time is an illusion to teachers, administrators, and students. Teachers are pressed to teach x amount of lesson plans in y weeks—which gives rise to the “breadth vs depth“ of knowledge problem. Teachers are not often given the freedom to implement more creativity into their lesson plans which in turn would enhance the depth of knowledge in the classroom. Students who are fatigued or may lack sufficient preparation from prior learnings will quickly fall behind in time as they cannot keep up with teachers that are providing a sequence of concepts which varies from lesson plan to lesson plan, week to week, semester to semester, and so on. Thus the student will only gain an breadth of knowledge from the material—which may not be sufficient at all for them to progress on. Time here is perceived as the ability to process information over a given number of hours and days. This information Is perceived as being vital to administrators as they assume students are gaining so much knowledge during a time span and should be able to comprehend the material well enough to pass exams and digest that materials to enter college. However, that assumption is an epic fail in which the U.S. is plagued with, hence the constant to declining rates in STEM fields. Lectures should be recorded so that students can go home and take the adequate amount of time needed to digest materials, projects should be extended to give students more flexibility in their understanding. Courses should be combined that are similar in nature to give a blended learning approach to students.
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