Lesson length time

I am a trainee teacher working with mostly 16-19 year old engineering students.

have recently observed during a few lessons that were timetabled for 2 hours. In reality this is 1hr 50 mins as they have 10 mins break at the end of a lesson and start of next making a 20 mins break overall in 4 hours of learning.

With a strict college policy on no refreshements in classrooms, I would contend these are long sessions for optimum learning outcome. Being a more mature student myself, I struggle to concentrate for 2 hours without a complete mental and refreshment break and such that for FE students this might be a recipe for mental digestion.

I welcome other poeples thoughts on the matter?

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Comment by Theresa Young on January 21, 2013 at 5:33am: Hi Roland,

I have exactly the same scenario with one of my lessons! It is so difficult as the students do get tired after about 60 minutes (in my experience) and need a break. How about having an 'active' task after a while? I have been using things like 'treasure' hunt activities to get the students up and moving, pumping some oxygen into their brains. I must admit that it has taken a while to get the students on board but now they seem more interested. I am very luck in Adult Community Learning as the rules are quite relaxed regarding break and eating in class. Are you able to play music while teaching? I have one class where I always stick on music to motivate them! It has been working well as it's easy to relate music to maths!

Theresa