Much of a teacher’s day is devoted to instruction, with precious little time set aside for collaborating with colleagues, planning lessons, or reflecting on practice, says a report from the Center for American Progress.
The authors note that U.S. educators spend far more time teaching lessons and less time planning them than educators in other top-performing countries. In a typical workweek, American teachers spend about 27 hours delivering lessons, compared with their counterparts in Singapore, who teach 17 hours each week, or to teachers in Finland, who log 21 hours a week.
The report highlights five schedules that aim to revamp how teachers spend a typical school day. All the schedules include more time for teachers to work together to plan lessons, flexible instruction blocks that allow teachers to tailor instruction to students’ particular needs, and opportunities for small-group instruction and student-directed learning.
