Many studies and academia research on such (hours total and hours / day of education), but no clear winners, as;
USA spends a lot of T-I-M-E but is not too effective
Asia spends less time, but up to 98% of students ALSO go to extra tutoring
Finland (has shown HUGE improvements and much less time educating (traditionally))
FinlandThe average Finnish student has 75 minutes a day of recess compared to the mere 27 most US kids get. And not only that, teachers give the kids a 15 minute break after every lesson. Students in Finland are encouraged to play outside, even when it’s freezing
Overall, teachers in Finland are highly valued and given a ton of autonomy to create their own curriculums filled with plenty of art, music and science. They are given guidelines on what to teach, but aren’t told how to teach. They are empowered to make bold choices to do what they think is needed to get their kids to learn. They are championed for thinking outside the box. And they do it all in less time. Finnish teachers spend fewer hours at school and less time teaching than their American counterparts do. Most schools are in session from eight or nine a.m. until one or two p.m
What Can We Learn From Finland? - Ask for help! Finnish teachers aren’t afraid to reach out to their colleagues and ask for help
- Get outside! Give your students a breath of fresh air … literally! In Finland they take their students out of the classroom often. “We do work in the field,”
- Get to know your students! In Finland many teachers have the same students year after year
- Implement more play time! Kids in Finland spend more time playing than students in pretty much any other nation. But it doesn’t hurt their results a bit.
- Think outside the textbook!
- Keep learning yourself!
This should sound VERY familiar to teachers / USA historical background during the yrs of country schools and autonomous schools with FREEDOM and encouragement to meet the community and student needs.
And... it sounds a lot like our 12+ yrs of 'unschooling' our own kids. (and that of 300+ in our homeschool group)
We host a few teachers from Europe, Africa, and Oceania.
Very different ways / focus +/-
Some countries you follow your students through 3-5 grade levels +/-
Some countries are short on classrooms and buildings, so have one classroom of 40 kids 7am - 12noon and another classroom of 40 different kids 1PM till 6PM + school on Saturday AMs (usually science and math labs)
That is NOT gonna fly in USA 'entitlement' culture.
- Kids won't behave (education is not 'important' enough')
- Parents won't participate (they pay taxes for SERVICE
)
- Administrators listen to federal and state academians (who know little about the needs of society, industry, students, families, they just focus on the RULES to capture more funding (Money does not make better schools either)
- School Boards are C-T-A to 'appear' vote-worthy (it is often a very 'social' politically correct arena, NO thought to the KIDS they are serving (?))
nothing to do with TIME spent or financing... USA system is broken BADLY, No Band-aids are gonna fix this!.
It is really BEYOND schools, much of what the US Gov has got involved in has dwarfed out of perspective / useful value.
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