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Tuesday 4 June 2013

Just the right term... for some educational research

A teacher came to me today asking about the best place to find research on the optimum lesson length.

He and I sat there for a while, trying to get the right search term in Google Scholar and ProQuest Education Journals (NLB).
  • "class length"
  • "lesson length"
  • "lesson duration"
  • optimal
Nothing relevant was coming up. 

He had to leave, but I persevered a bit longer -- and then I hit it:  "block scheduling".

No one else may be interested in the issue, but here's what I was able to find in a very short time in ProQuest, once I had the magic words.

Eineder, Dale V., and Harold L. Bishop. “Block Scheduling the High School: The Effects on Achievement, Behavior, and Student-teacher Relationships.” National Association of Secondary School Principals. NASSP Bulletin 81.589 (1997): 45–54. Print.

Evans, William et al. “Block Scheduling: An Evaluation of Outcomes and Impact.” The Clearing House 75.6 (2002): 319–323. Print.

Hackmann, Donald G. “Constructivism and Block Scheduling: Making the Connection.” Phi Delta Kappan 85.9 (2004): 697–702. Print.

Lare, Douglas, Ann M. Jablonski, and Mary Salvaterra. “Block Scheduling: Is It Cost-effective?” National Association of Secondary School Principals. NASSP Bulletin 86.630 (2002): 54–71. Print.

Lewis, Chance W. et al. “The Effects of Block Scheduling on High School Academic Achievement.” National Association of Secondary School Principals. NASSP Bulletin 89.645 (2005): 72–87. Print.

McEwan, Anna E. “Time and Teaching.” The Educational Forum 76.1 (2012): 81–89. Print.

Muse, Frederic M. “Reasons Why a School Should Not Implement Block Scheduling.” Allied Academies International Conference. Academy of Educational Leadership. Proceedings 3.1 (1998): 66–72. Print.

Rettig, Michael D., and Robert Lynn Canady. “Block Scheduling: More Benefits Than Challenges. Response to Thomas (2001).” National Association of Secondary School Principals. NASSP Bulletin 85.628 (2001): 78–86. Print.

Thomas, Cheryl. “What Is Wrong with Block Scheduling?” National Association of Secondary School Principals. NASSP Bulletin 85.628 (2001): 74–77. Print.

Todd, Will. “An Examination of Block Scheduling: Teacher Perceptions and Relationship to Student Achievement.” 2008. ProQuest. Web. 4 June 2013.

Wright, Martha Kathryn Williams. “A Longitudinal Study of Block Scheduling in One South Carolina High School: A Descriptive Twenty-five Year Case Study from Traditional to Block.” 2010. ProQuest. Web. 4 June 2013.

Zepeda, Sally J., and R. Stewart Mayers. “An Analysis of Research on Block Scheduling.” Review of Educational Research 76.1 (2006): 137–170. Print.

The above bibliography was generated thanks to Zotero, where I created a folder in the UWCSEA group called Block Scheduling.  Feel free to add to it.
Copies of the full-text of the articles above are available as links to Google Docs attached to each of the Zotero items -- and the Google Docs are all stored in a Google folder called Block Scheduling -- accessible to anyone logged into their UWCSEA Gapps account.
I haven't read them yet, so I'm afraid I don't know what the consensus is.  I'll leave that to the inquiring teacher to tell us.

Update: 5 June:  His feedback was that the best summary of the issue is Donald Hackman's article "Constructivism and Block Scheduling: Making the Connection."  Having read it, I agree -- great article.  Highly recommended.


Image: cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo shared by Earls37a