Block Scheduling Research Paper

Each year, more and more schools are switching from normal eight hour days, to block scheduling. There are many in favour of this, saying that having more time allows the students to absorb more information. Others believe that block scheduling isn’t such a great idea. The length of a block is too much time for some people to focus on one subject, some unused time ends up being wasted, and during the extra day that students have between classes, information that taught can be forgotten. These are but three reasons that some disapprove block scheduling.
One of the main problems with block scheduling deals with how long a block actually is. A typical block is around 90 minutes long. For many students, this is too long to focus on a single subject. After only learning about one thing for a long period of time, many students simply stop paying attention. This leads to them being very bored in class. As a result of this, grades start to drop. This isn’t to say that an extended period of time can’t also be positive. For example, it allows more information to be taught in one sitting. The only problem is that this is just more information that students won’t focus on.

The amount of time in a block isn’t the only thing that factors into why student have difficulty focusing.

During a block, students are able to pay attention better towards the beginning 15 minutes, and the ending fifteen minutes of the class. The problem with this is that during the first fifteen minutes teachers are taking roll call and giving student quick worksheets to do instead of actually teaching new information. All of the excess time pools up at the end of the class, so information isn’t being taught during that time. By switching from block scheduling to an eight hour day, there would be less extra time during the end of class, so new material would be well absorbed by the

students.
Another problem with the time occurs on testing days. During day when teachers give tests, they often reserve the entire block for their test. This allows student a full 90 minutes to complete the test, but some student are quicker than others. When these students get done with their tests, they often have nothing to do during the remaining time until the end of the class. With nothing to do, many bored student will start to goof off, which in turn will distract other students from their test. If there were 45 minute classes, instead of 90 minute blocks, there would be less time for students to get into trouble.
Students are more likely to forget what they were taught when block scheduling is in use. Because there are only four classes a day in block scheduling, it takes two days for a student to cycle through their classes a single time. This means that there’s an extra day between each class period. This gives students more time for homework, but it also gives them more time to forget their teachings. Without going over what they’ve learned for more than 24 hours, many students will forget the majority of what they learned during an entire block. Some students study so that they won’t forget this, but most won’t
Overall, block scheduling hurts a student more than it helps them. Granted, it means that they don’t have to learn as much in one day, and it gives them extra homework time. But as a whole, the cons outweigh the pros.