Comparative Study on School Hours in Various Countries

1997 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 08610263
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Educaion
• Research Institution: HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY
• Principal Investigator: NINOMIYA Akira Hiroshima University, Faculty of Education, Professor, 教育学部, 教授 (70000031)
• Project Period (FY): 1996 – 1997
• Keywords: School Time / Comparative Education / School Hours / School Calendar / School Year / Compulsory Schooling

Research Abstract

This study aims at find the culture of school hours in various countries through international comparisons. The research results are as follows :
1. Applicability of the theoretical concept of "time " to school hours (time)
The investigator tried to review the various aspects of concepts of time in our literatures (philosophical, psychological, and cultural), to find the applicability to the difinition and concept of the school time (hours).
2. Internaitonal comparative survey on school time and hours
In the survey, the following aspects of the school time cultures are surveyed and analyzed to find some tendencies and characteristics : compulsory schooling ages, school year and calendar, five-days week school or six-days week school, what time schools open and close, how many days of instruction or school days in a year they have, how long the lunch period and recess periods are, and the percentages oflessons, recesses, lunch periods in the total school hours a day.
I found that the school time and hours cultures are so diversified and varied, so that no one can conclude the unified and single statement on it. The cultures of school time and hours are determined by geographical, natural, socio-economic, cultural and pedagogical backgrounds and conditions. There is no single theory of school time and hours culture in the world. I had an assumption that the Japanse school time and hours culture is defined as "longer", but I found there are many countries in which they have much longer school hours culture than Japanese schools.
About the time on instruction and classes, there is no clear relation between the total school hours and the hours for class-instructions. The longer school houra are determined not by how many classes (in a narrow sense), but by what types of school activities are included and by how teachers are employed and asked to work. The substantial class-lessons hours of Japanese schools are not necessarily longer than other countries. We have to reconsider the school time and hours from the view points of time on task.