Time-on-Task

For students in PK–12 schools, the school day is segmented to allocate time for instruction and time for noninstructional activities, such as lunch, recess, and moving from one classroom to another. During instructional time, students have opportunities to engage in learning. When students take advantage of these opportunities during instruction, they are considered to be “on-task.” Researchers measure on-task behavior and call it “time-on-task.”

On-task time is differentiated from total time spent in the classroom or other learning venues, because students do not spend all the time they are in a classroom engaged in learning. Time is also consumed as students enter and leave the room, when materials are collected, and when student misbehavior is corrected. In addition, though the teacher may provide instruction, students do not always concentrate on learning activities that take place. Students daydream, converse with classmates, doodle, complete assignments for other teachers, and sometimes sleep.

Time for learning is affected by events within and also beyond the control of the teacher. Time-on-task is interrupted by events such as unplanned announcements over the public address system, students and other teachers entering the room to procure materials or share information, unannounced visits from guest artists or speakers visiting the school, and the late or early arrival of teachers of special programs, such as art, music, keyboarding, and drug awareness. In short, time allocated for learning is not synonymous with time used for learning.

Numerous studies conducted over nearly 40 years support a positive relationship between time-on-task and achievement, especially for low-performing students. Though the research is consistent, one criticism of these studies is that data gathering relies on the observation of the researcher, and therefore, results may overestimate the amount of time that students are actually on-task. That is, a student may appear to be on-task while actually daydreaming or may perfunctorily perform a rote task without attempting to learn from the task.

The amount of time students attend to learning varies (a) by subject matter—more time is spent on-task during mathematics lessons than during English, reading, or social studies lessons; (b) by achievement level—higher-achieving students attend more during instruction than lower-achieving students; (c) by instructional strategy—students' time-on-task is higher during laboratory and group work than during lecture; (d) by age—older students spend more time off-task than younger students; (e) by task relevance and challenge—students are more likely to engage in content they deem relevant and challenging; and (f) by ethnicity—Asian and White students report more time-on-task than do African American and Hispanic students. Ethnic differences in attention to task begin to disappear when lesson quality and instructional quality are high, however.

Time-on-task also appears to increase when class size is lower. Some research suggests that lowering class size for primary-aged youngsters increases the time teachers are able to devote to individual students, thereby increasing the students' attention to the task. Similarly, as teachers spend more time assisting individual and small groups of students with learning tasks, the students also spend more time-on-task.

Researchers argue whether overall time-on-task is better increased by lengthening the school day and year or by limiting lecture in favor of other methods found in the research to engage students in learning. Resolution of this argument has implications for both policy and practice.

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