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An analysis of the British education system
The British educational system
In comparative education, compare and contrast Britain and the United States of America education system
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What is school life like in a different country? Students in Britain have a very different school life than the students here in America. “Education is an important part of British life. There are hundreds of schools, colleges and universities, including some of the most famous in the world,” said Mandy Barrow. Students in Britain attend school longer, have shorter breaks, and their terms and requirements are much different than the schools regulations here in America.
How long do students in Britain attend school each year? Students in Britain do not have to attend school as long as Americans do. For example, a student can drop out at the age of 16 instead of 18. Education is free and compulsory for all children between the ages of 5 – 16 (“Introduction”). Students in Britain get to eat breakfast for 2 hours, from 7 – 9. They also get to eat lunch for an hour and a
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That’s around seven hours a day. That’s one hour less than Americans. They also get a much longer time to eat lunch and breakfast. If you add it up, they attend classes for five hours and forty-five minutes each day for five days each week.
For vacation, they get six weeks for summer, two weeks for Christmas and Easter, and a week in the middle of February and October (“School Terms”). That’s two months and two weeks they get off from school each year. In America, students get off from school for three months a school year. So even though they attend class longer Americans get longer breaks.
Students in Britain attend school for one hundred and ninety-five days (“School Days”). American students attend school for one hundred and eighty days. That’s a whole fifteen day difference! American students also have ten snow days that can be taken off if it snows and the students can’t return to school. Britain students don’t necessarily have snow days; they just get called off from school because of dangerous snowy
Year round school or the modified school year is a rearrangement of the traditional school year to provide the students with continuous learning throughout the school year. Students receive the same amount of instructional time as a traditional school. In year round schools, the instructional time is balanced without of school time more evenly. (Winter, 2005) The National Association for Year Round Schooling defines it as “a schedule which contains no break lasting longer than eight weeks-schools are able to keep their students in constant learning mode, and are able to use the intersessions between periods of schooling to address the problems of students who are falling behind.” (St. Gerard, 2007, pg. 57) There are three common tracks of year round schooling. They are the single track, multitrack, and extended year. The single track is scheduled throughput the year into intersessions which allow time for enrichment or red-mediation. The multitrack is used to help schools reduce overcrowding. The school divides the teachers and students into groups of an equal size. Each group has its own schedule. One group is on intercession while the other is in school. The extended year increases the amount of time spent in schools from 180 days to as many as 240 days a year. (McGlynn, 2002)
Before the argument, some misconceptions need to be clarified: Schools with the traditional school year have nine months of
According to writer Vanessa St Gerard from The Education Digest, a traditional school year is defined as “large blocks of instruction with inter-spread week-long breaks, all culminating with a long summer break” (2007). This structure is most familiar to Americans today, however the new alternative schedule presents a variance in the time allocated for breaks throughout the school year. “During a modified school year, instruction periods typically are broken up into 45-or-60-day sessions with each of these being divided by breaks lasting three to four weeks” (St Gerard, 2007). In the alternative calendar, schools would still break for a summer session, but in most cases the break would consist of about five weeks rather than eight. While the calendars might differ in session times, they would both meet the federally mandated 180 days of ins...
In Japan, their school was about 220 out of 364 days in the years; It means they do have trimester. For example; first semester is the first of April till the mid of July then has some break
The first reason for the traditional school year, the students should have a break time and they will spend time for the family traditional vacation. For summer breaks no longer term of YRE, the students will have three to four weeks shorter breaks then back to school. They attend school for more than 180 days calendars. For example, the students feel all the stress about heavily homework, test, studying, and quiz, but they need a break. In fact, summer vacation is a family tradition. YRE should give an opportunity for health and social education. In addition, the most United State school kids have lost their summer break in 2.5 million as their school districts options of YRE (“Year-Rou...
In the United States, most schools still use a ten-month calendar that was developed when our country’s students needed school off to help with harvesting (Palmer). Trimble Local Schools Superintendent Kim Jones says, “year-round schooling is the notion of getting away from the old agrarian calendar...which was formed up around the planting season. Students were out of school from April until harvest to work in the fields,” (qtd. in Hapka). Under the agrarian system, most United States students are in school for nine to ten months, and get a two- to three- month summer vacation. However, the United States is no longer an agricultural-based society, and students have no need to take a three-month-long, unnecessary, not to mention disruptive break during the summer months; instead, the United States should switch the school systems to a year-round calendar.
Year-round school, also known as a “balanced calendar”, is a new idea that is being brought up all over the United States. When most people hear the term “year-round school” they often think that school will literally be all year. In reality, year-round school is still the 180 days that a nine-month school year would be. The 180 days are stretched out through all 12 months of the year, and student get frequent breaks throughout the year. Schools that decide to use a balanced calendar have the option of how many days are spent in school and how many days will be spend on break. The most common schedule used is 45 days in school 15 days on break. There are also two types on year-round schooling systems. Single-track is when all the students are placed in the same schedule. They all attend school on the same days, and they all get the same days off. Multi-tracking is when the students are placed sub-sets. In an article that discusses the overview of year-round school they explain multi-tracking, “…the student body is divided into three of four subsets. The four sub-sets rotate vacation time, so that three sets of students attend school during a given term”(Chittom).
The article “The Impact of Year-Round Schooling on Academic Achievement” written by Steven McMullen and Kathryn E. Rouse in 2012 states, “According to one study, the research finds that a year-round calendar doesn't benefit the average student. Because these schools offer more breaks to make up for being in school year-round, students end up learning the same amount of material. Furthermore, the research found it isn't the amount of time that a student is in school, but rather the amount of learning that takes place” (McMullen & Rouse, 2012). The amount of time students are in school stays the same, the amount of material the students cover stays the same, and the amount of learning stays the same. This would lead to no academic benefit for the students to be in class year round. The students academics are not dependent on the time they are in school, it is how much they learn. The academics of the same student in both types of schooling would be the same. According to the article “Year-Round Schools: In Brief” written by Rebecca R. Skinner, a specialist in education policy for the Congressional Research Service, in 2014, “The research on the extent to which year-round schools affect student achievement has generally been found to be inconclusive and lacking in methodological rigor. There is some consensus that year-round schooling has no effect or a small positive effect on student performance”
The American educational system is based on the traditional, nine-month school calendar, which has been in place for over a century. Originally, the United States was an agrarian society. The majority of Americans lived on farms. People made most of the items that they needed, and with little trade necessary, there was no need for schooling (McLain, 1973). However, as people branched out into neighboring areas, they needed to learn new skills, such as basic arithmetic to price items, measure land, and more (McLain, 1973). As a result, it became the responsibility of those who were less needed on the farm or in the factory to acquire knowledge for the family (McLain, 1973).
What do you think about going to school year round with little breaks here and there, but not your traditional three month summer break? Year round schooling has been a decision argued with the government, teachers, principals and parents. Many kids and adults like to relax on their three month break. Many students are used to having two week winter break, one week spring break, and three months of summer break. Overall, one three month break would benefit than having three-week breaks broken up throughout the school year.
Schools are so much a part of our society, so the accurate length of school days is extremely important. Public opinions on the length of the school days are different. There are a lot of parents and professors concerned that it is hard for children to go to school early in the morning and stay there the whole day. On the other side, some professors try to force students into a nine hour school day. Not so many years ago, school was a main part of my life, and the school days’ structure and length affected my social life and ability to study. From my own experience and some studies that I have seen, students benefit if school days are long.
Rybak: In a Chinese school the day is much longer than an American school day. This means that Chinese students spend a lot more time in school which brings us to the conclusion that Chinese are more advantaged than the American students in long run. This prepares them for college or even the young adult to be bio-lingual. Most American students usually attend school for seven hours each weekday and may forget what they have learned because it is instilled into the young adults’ heads like the Chinese do with their students.
[HAN] I think the school system, because basically you go there, I went to school usually by 7:30am and came home 7:00pm. But some students stay longer, like even 10:00pm if you are a senior and about to go to college because there is kind of, like parents and teacher think their kids or students should go to college. Like have to go to college. They?re gonna pressure them to study a lot, so when you?re a senior you start to study a lot and you don?t sleep that much. Usually I think some people sleep 3 or 4 hours per day and just study. No free time.
Most children attend school for about 6.5 hours per day. Some people argue that this not enough time for children to master key concepts while others say that children spend too much time in school and on homework which leaves them little time for family or fun activities. “There are many benefits to year-round schooling—including consistency, less time spent relearning material, and the implications that year-round schooling has for closing the achievement gap” (Lynch, 2016, par. 1). Currently, more than 700 schools have extended their day. Massachusetts extended their school day so that it was 8 hours and found that they went up 44 percent in math,19 percent in science, and 39 percent in language arts (“Should students spend more time in
Education plays a large part in the socialization of children into society. Most American children spend the required 180 days each year in school from the first grade through high school. Most of a child's day through these years is devoted to activities involving school such as attending classes, doing homework, and participating in extracurricular activities. The school format is designed to teach children to be productive members of society.