Focused on Learning: Student and Teacher Time in a Singapore School
Abstract
"In this study, we examine how one school within the Singapore system organizes and allocates student and teacher time within the school day and how that allocation and use of time contributes to the growth and development of students and the growth and development of teachers' capacity to support their students.This report illustrates the ways in which time, regardless of perceptions of adequacy and within given realities of availability, can be employed in the service of positive academic and social outcomes. The key is decision-making around time allocation, guided by a sharp focus on what should be--but is not always--paramount in schools: learning, on the part of both students and teachers. This focus ensures that time is used optimally, distributed across a range of activities designed to support teacher and student development, and differentiated in ways that can sustain a diversity of learners (adult/child, teacher/ student, novice/expert, etc.) as well as multiple short- and long-term goals."