Do you think we should push back early classes? (article)
“From the data, the researchers found that early class start times were associated with lower attendance, with many students regularly sleeping past the start of such classes. When students did attend an early class, they lost about an hour of sleep. Morning classes on more days of the week were also associated with a lower grade point average.
“If the goal of formal education is to position our students to succeed in the classroom and workforce, why are we forcing many university students into the bad decision of either skipping morning class to sleep more or attending class while sleep-deprived?” asked Assoc Prof Gooley. “The take-home message from our study is that universities should reconsider mandatory early morning classes.”
The researchers drew insights using the Wi-Fi connection logs of 23,391 students to find out if early morning classes were associated with lower attendance. They then compared the data with six weeks of watch-derived activity data from a subset of 181 students to determine if the students were sleeping instead of attending early morning classes.
They also analyzed activity data with the day and night patterns of digital learning platform logins of 39,458 students to determine if early morning classes were associated with waking up earlier and getting less sleep. Finally, they studied the grades of 33,818 students and the number of morning classes these students were taking to determine if it impacted their grade point average.”
My Takeaways:
Research shows that setting class times earlier in the morning can cause students to perform poorly and increase absenteeism. The most probable reason being that waking up early can be difficult and also if students do wake up can cause inadequate sleep.
Although early classes do promote the importance of attendance that can be crucial for future careers, it’s also important to realize that college students have many activities that occur later at night that makes it difficult for students to juggle between attending morning classes and going to late night events.
Regardless of the decision to push classes later in the day or encourage students to sleep earlier, this article does reflect the importance of sleep to academic success. Sleep is an important reset for the brain and is where the majority of actual learning and memory consolidation takes place.
Full article is here!
#Sleep #Education #School
Should schools push back early classes to later in the morning?
@sunnyWriting4806
Hey, sunny! Hows you doing? Thanks for another awesome and insightful post!
I think that all these topics that are here are so deeply connected. How much we sleep, our class attendance, our grades, our balance of social life and school life, and even other things that we haven't mentioned like stress and eating, all impact each other. When one starts to fail, it's like a domino effect. So when you have to wake up early, your performance on that 7:30 am pop quiz might not be your best work. As I'm spending more time in a college setting, I see how most of the students stay up later and later and can sleep well into the mornings. With these early morning classes, you are disrupting their set routines, cutting the amount of sleep they are getting, and making everything more challenging for them. Sleep is important for so many reasons.
However, I don't mind early morning classes. I like getting up and getting the work done; otherwise, I feel I'm wasting time in the mornings waiting for classes to start. At my school, you get to pick most of your classes and the start times. If students only want afternoon classes, they can, and if you work best with morning classes, you can do morning classes. Everyone has what works best for them. While I overall agree with moving class times back, I like this approach of being able to choose because everyone has different things that work for them. What are your thoughts?
@Estrellitaa
For sure I agree with you! So many people have their own unique productivity schedules and it really depends on them to sort of build their schedules around what they think will be the most effective for them. I also like getting things done in the morning and having a relaxing evening where I can go out, have some fun and come back to sleep :)
Great article, @sunnyWriting4806
I agree that sleep directly affects students' performance in class. But I think if classes start at 8:30-9am, it would be okay for students. If classes are pushed back too late in the morning, one may become lazy and leave things to the last minute. Or they may stay up later at night, thinking that they'll have more time to sleep in!~
@Jaeteuk
That is true! perhaps it might best not to reinforce the sleeping late and lazy behaviors rather than set strict times as to promote prudence in sleeping and attendance!