Traditional Scheduling vs. Block Scheduling

Block Scheduling vs. Traditional Scheduling: A Student’s Perspective on a Seven Period Day

Traditional scheduling offers many advantages that block scheduling does not: students have daily contact with each teacher; traditional school scheduling provides more in class time for students; students who suffer from attention deficit disorder and other disabilities are better able to focus during shorter periods and benefit from daily teacher-student interaction; students in the short attention span era of MTV, text messaging, and Youtube focus better during short periods.

Continuity is an important factor with traditional school scheduling. Students immediately establish a pattern to their day. None of this matters, of course, if students do not perform better with traditional school scheduling. Block scheduling proponents point to a higher graduation rate with block scheduling schools. What they fail to mention is the watered down diploma their students receive. They graduate more because there are more classes available. They cram eight classes into what was intended to be a six or seven period schedule.

That being said, there are disadvantages to the traditional school scheduling that will be addressed in the next section.

What are the disadvantages?

One major disadvantage of a seven period day is that students have seven classes to prepare for, seven textbooks to carry, and possibly seven homework assignments. On some days, students will have multiple tests to study for, thus requiring the student to perform a balancing act in order to manage his/her schedule effectively. On the other hand, students learn time management skills from balancing their schedules.

With seven classes come seven teachers who all have different classroom environments, different classroom expectations, and different classroom rules. Students must remember in whose class they can chew gum, in whose class they are only allowed to breathe, and in whose class they are allowed to roam campus.