Block Scheduling In College

School is not easy for most high school students, but the way information is taught to them can make a huge difference in their educational experience. A student’s day consists him/her going to class and listening to a teacher for minutes on end. Two types of schedules, modular and block, have become controversial in the world of education. According to Marla M. Mondie, in her article titled, “Teaching on the Block: A Model for Pre-Service Teachers”, “Block schedule is rooted in J. Lloyd Trump’s 1959 Flexible Modular Scheduling Design” (Mondie 3). The plan originally called for class to have a 40 minute lecture, 20 minute help session and a 100 minute lab each week (Mondie 3). Other classes would be shorter, about 20 or 30 minutes. Furthermore, …show more content…
Some of the many benefits include “higher GPA’s, lower failure rates, lower dropout rates, higher college enrollment rates and slightly higher SAT scores” (Imbimbo 2). When students are allowed the chance to learn at a higher level, it’s not a surprise that they respond with higher achievement. Block scheduling not only benefits students, but teachers as well. The longer class times increases the high-quality preparation time for teachers. This allows them to spend less time on procedures and routines and can stick to teaching students how to understand the curriculum. High school is also a time where students are being prepared for college and life after school. Under the block scheduling design students are able to take a broader array of courses (Mondie 5). Kids in turn begin to discover what they like and what they are good at, which is what the goal of schooling is. It also helps when students stay out of trouble. No college or business wants to deal with someone who is constantly in the wrong places. Block scheduling has shown that schools who have implemented it report fewer disciplinary referrals (Mondie 5). Improved class attendance is just another result of block scheduling to go along with what has been stated previously. Standardized testing is a very controversial topic in high school and pre-secondary school education. There are inconsistent results on whether …show more content…
With blocks, certain places are designated for class every day. According to Luke Muggy and Tom Easton, in their article from 2015, “Modular scheduling empowers teachers with the ability to design the structure of their classes by adjusting the frequency, duration, and location of each of their lessons” (Easton and Muggy 1). Students like consistency, and moving classes from one place to another can be plain annoying to a naive high schooler. Blocks do not allow as much flexibility, but are advantageous due to the fact that they are consistent. Another challenge posed is when students miss class time. Missing one day on the block is like missing two or three days in a traditional schedule (Imbimbo 3). Maybe the biggest challenge is that block scheduling is only effective if it is implemented correctly in schools. If not they can negatively impact the way students learn. It may not only impact the students, but the teachers as well. According to Josephine Imbimbo, it may be necessary to negotiate the block scheduling demands with teachers’ contracts because some teachers may be asked to work longer hours on some days (Imbimbo 3). Substitute teachers will also need to be aware of the block format, since most do not know how to teach with the longer class periods. jA further negative for block scheduling comes from teachers covering less