Time Allocations in School
T H E S K I L L F U L T E A C H E R 83
PART TWO | MANAGEMENT | TIME
2. Teacher instructional time is the amount of allocated time the teacher is actually engaged with students delivering instruction or actively monitoring learning experiences (versus doing management tasks such as taking attendance and setting up equipment).
3. Student engaged time, often referred to as time on task, is the number of minutes that students are observably paying attention to and fo- cusing on instructional material (versus waiting, daydreaming, fooling around, getting organized, and listening to announcements).
4. Academic learning time is the portion of time students spend engaged in relevant academic tasks and performing those tasks with a high rate of success. Relevant academic tasks and a high success rate distinguish it from, and make it a subset of, student engaged time. For clarity, we will call it high success time here.
5. Interactive instructional time is time spent directly with a student get- ting instruction (one-to-one, small group, or large group), as opposed to time spent alone doing seatwork or projects or working with a group that’s not interacting directly with an instructor.
These categorical distinctions are very useful as a framework for studying this area of performance and becoming ever more purposeful in maximizing its impact on achievement. Data show that teachers who study their time use make significant changes (Stallings, 1980) and get better student learning. Let’s look at each one in more detail.