Does more time mean better learning?

I just came across an interesting rant titled Bell to Bell written by a teacher who is obviously frustrated by her school board increasing the number of class hours in an attempt to improve student results. At first glance one might wonder how this could be a frustrating notion. One must look at some of the misconceptions of making kids take more school/classes/whatever.



The likelihood of more minutes creating the desired change is very slim. What one should really look at is some of the other factors involved. So here is a quick list of factors that really do impede student learning.

• Class size: Common sense dictates that the more bodies you have in a class, the less time the teacher has to dedicate to each individual student. The possibility for a child to fall through the cracks increases. On top of that teachers are reluctant to try new and engaging techniques with large groups because things can go south quickly with a larger group.
• Lack of resources: Education itself is chronically underfunded. Quite often government bodies balance the budget at the expense of children's education. Less money not only means less teachers (and therefore bigger classes) but it also means less educational assistants, special programs, educational experiences, etc.
• An archaic reporting system: The system we use to calculate a student's mark does nothing to tell the student how to improve. What is the difference between an assignment that gets a 64 and a 65? Not much. We should be assessing "for" learning and not just "of" learning.
• Standardized testing: Too much effort is put into teaching a test rather than teaching a child. Need I say more.
• Out of date teaching techniques: Students are more in tune to the different types of media that exist. My high school kids are all plugged into their I-pods, etc. What would engage them more, a worksheet or a performance task where they create their own podcast or a text message that proves that they have learned the content.

Making our kids endure these circumstances for longer periods is not a solution for poor results, in fact it may be a cause. Lets change the corp of our system. Lets fix the above mentioned problems (they all are fixable) and help the learners of the 21st century.