Quality over quantity in class

THE amount of time children spend in the classroom is not one of the major factors which affect academic outcomes, research shows.

Senior lecturer in Inclusive Education at R MIT University David Armstrong said quality of instruction and a robust curriculum were far more important indicator sofa successful education system.

“It’s things like school culture as well come into that, such as is a school well run, has it got strong leadership, do teachers obviously care about the kids and do the kids know the teachers care about them, have they got a strong school spirit ?” he said.

“I’d say all of those factors are the really, really important things rather than whether one school has 20 minutes or half an hour or even an hour more or less … it is the quality of the time spent.”

International comparisons of standardised testing showed contact time did not cor relate with results.

“Australia was right at the top of countries with the most contact time out of all of the OECD countries, including ones like Finland and Singapore, who always do really well,” hesaid.

“Obviously, the NAPLAN results from Australia are not the best. So there’s no connection, I don’t think, or weak connection, between the hours a day spent at school .”

Dr Armstrong said that for some groups— children with disabilities or from at-risk groups — a modified school day was sometimes required, where additional time could help them keep up or to meet other needs, such as providing breakfast programs or homework clubs.