Quality Time for Students: Learning In and Out of School

This report focuses on how students use learning time, both in and out of school. What are the ideal conditions to ensure that students use their learning time efficiently? What can schools do to maximise the learning that occurs during the limited amount of time students spend in class? In what kinds of lessons does learning time reap the most benefits? And how can this be determined?





At a time when OECD and partner countries are trying to figure out how to reduce burgeoning debt and make the most of shrinking public budgets, spending on education is an obvious target for scrutiny. Education officials, teachers, policy makers, parents and students struggle to determine the merits of shorter or longer school days or school years, how much time should be allotted to various subjects, and the usefulness of after-school lessons and independent study.

The report draws on data from the 2006 cycle of the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) to describe differences across and within countries in how much time students spend studying different subjects, how much time they spend in different types of learning activities, how they allocate their learning time and how they perform academically.

Table of Contents
Reader’s Guide
Chapter 1. STUDENTS’ LEARNING TIME
Introduction
OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
How PISA measures students’ learning time
Why learning time is studied
Aims and organisation of the report
• Do students from different countries organise their learning time and activities differently?
• Do students from different population sub-groups within countries organise their learning time and activities differently?
• What are the cross-country and within-country relationships between learning time and performance?
References
Chapter 2. PATTERNS OF STUDENTS’ LEARNING TIME
Introduction
Learning time in regular school lessons
Learning time in out-of-school-time lessons
Learning time in individual study
Allocation of learning time and different forms of deliberate learning activities
To what extent are students involved in out-of-school-time lessons?
Patterns of students’ absolute and relative learning time
Chapter 3. PATTERNS OF STUDENTS’ LEARNING TIME BY POPULATION SUB-GROUPS
Introduction.
Student background characteristics
School characteristics
Characteristics of learning time
• Characteristics of learning time in regular school lessons and individual study
• Characteristics of learning time in out-of-school-time lessons
• Who spends more time in regular school lessons and individual study?
• Who spends more time in which types of out-of-school-time lessons?
References
Chapter 4. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN STUDENTS’ LEARNING TIME AND PERFORMANCE
Introduction
Learning time and performance across countries
Learning time and performance within countries
Learning time in regular school lessons and performance
• Science
• Mathematics
• Language of instruction
• The role of students’ motivation
Learning time in out-of-school-time lessons and performance
• Science
• Mathematics
• Language of instruction
• Performance by different types of out-of-school-time lessons
Learning time in individual study and performance
• Science
• Mathematics
• Language of instruction
Do students who study longer perform better?
Policy implications
• For policy makers
• For school administrators, teachers, parents and students
ANNEX
Annex A1: Questionnaire indices
Annex A2: Data tables