Does your student disengage from the classroom or zone out halfway through a lecture? While most schools stick to traditional class lengths, research actually suggests there’s an ideal class length for maximizing a student’s attention span and potential. In this article, I’ll break down the science behind ideal class length and show you why traditional school classes are actually stifling student potential and growth!
Why Traditional Class Lengths Fall Short
Most primary and secondary schools rely on class periods that range from 50 to 90 minutes long. This may seem beneficial at first, but research suggests that it can actually lead to waning focus and inefficiencies. Pronto.io cites the following:
A typical student’s attention span is about 10 to 15 minutes long, yet most classes can last for 30 minutes to an hour.
When a class period is longer, it also leaves less time for administrative tasks that the teacher may need to do. Important things like grading papers, lesson planning, and more have less time during the school day when the class periods are 45 minutes or more. So, let’s first break down the disadvantages of longer class times:
Disadvantages of Longer Class Times
1. Loss in Student Focus
As mentioned previously, student focus drops sharply after 20-25 minutes. Because of this, it’s common for many students to have a focus ‘reset’ multiple times during a 50+ minute period. This focus reset can become a large barrier for student retention. For this reason, 50-minute periods are far from the ideal class length.
2. More Lesson Prep
Longer class periods require more prep from the teachers which takes more time. Additionally, teachers may begin reserving time during these longer class periods to keep up with administrative tasks which can leave students with periods of downtime. These periods can leave students bored and ‘checked out’ mentally when the lesson begins again. 30-minute periods are closer to the ideal class length as the lesson prep time is reduced drastically.
3. Decrease in Quality
Because teachers need to plan a lesson for a long period, it can decrease the lesson quality. The reason for this is the teacher may feel the need to artificially bloat the lesson to meet the class period length. When a lesson is bloated, there is more ‘fluff’ for content then needed. In addition to the longer period, this fluff also contributes to decreasing student focus.
Why 30 Minutes is the Ideal Class Length
1. Aligns with Student Focus Cycles
30-minute periods mesh a lot better with a student’s attention rhythm. A format such as this supports better retention and learning efficiency. As a result, the student becomes more engaged in class. This can lead to increased participation and focus!
2. Minimizes Time Lost to Transitions
Shorter periods can lead to a decrease in classroom distractions which ensure students can start learning immediately. The goal of an ideal class length is to end the lesson right as the student is approaching their focus limit. When a student changes classes, their focus is reset and they’re ready to learn.
3. Maximizes Learning Exposure
Schools like The Tenney School see a drastic improvement in student engagement and retention rates in a program with shorter class periods. We’ve seen it actually accelerate student potential while minimizing distractions. We’ve also taken this a step further by ensuring all of our core academic classes are taught one-on-one.
4. Freshness Drives Engagement
Switching subjects or classes every half hour ‘resets’ the student’s attention. This mental refresh proves to be extremely beneficial in that it resets the student’s mental stimulus and can even encourage student interest. This kind of engagement is essential in middle and high school settings.
What Are Your Options?
If you’re looking for a school where students’ needs are taken into consideration, contact us. We’ve set up our school so that student attention rates during class time is increased. This is through our shorter class periods, and one-to-one instructional model which we’ve been developing for over half a century!