How to plan a timetable for elementary education

Awadhesh Kishore, M.P. Gupta*, Lalit Mohan Sharma* and Rakhi Sharma**

Sarvoday Mahavidyalay, Chaumuhan-281406, Mathura INDIA
*RBS College, Agra-282002 INDIA
**Institute for Development of Technology for Rural Advancement, Mathura-281004 INDIA

ABSTRACT:

Introduction:

Education is one of the most important key, not only for the perfect development of citizen's personality, but also for the sustained growth of the nation and the world as well. Elementary education, is the foundation of development of every citizen and the nation. But making this available for the entire child is always challenging for the governments and therefore they are making it’s availability to each and every child as a constitutional requirement. Moreover, the quality of elementary education has also been a major cause of worry. Various action plans discovered for quality education cannot get success if, are not implemented in the school in a prefect and planned way (Irwin Goldberg, 1967).

The teaching and learning process is closely nested within the support system of inputs and other contextual factors. Teaching and learning is the key arena for human development and change. While the indirect enabling inputs are closely related to this dimension, the actual teaching and learning processes include student time spent learning, assessment methods for monitoring student progress, styles of teaching, the language of instruction and classroom organization strategies.

The timetable of a school may be a one of the major tools to help in implementation of such action plan for quality education in a particular school. A time division statement demonstrating planned layout of day to day curricular activities in a school, consisting information regarding specific class, teacher and the subject is named timetable. Timetable is defined as a university or college catalog listing all classes taught (dictionary.reference.com. 2011). A school timetable contains four elements: Students, Teachers, Rooms and Time slots called periods (en.wikipedia.org). Other factors included in the time table are the subject of the class, and the type of classrooms available e.g. laboratories etc. School timetables usually cycle every week.

Most of the workers (Klein, 2004) reported that high potential manifesting a greater facility in coping with mental fatigue. An imbalanced school time table may result in impaired memory potential, lower attention levels (Dingers & Kribbs, 1991) and increased mental fatigue. Dahl (1999) found that students are especially prone to fatigue when the source of motivation stems from assignments involving abstract concepts.

During prolonged undertakings, mental fatigue develops gradually, as is reflected by a weakening of cognitive processing abilities (Schwartz, 2000) and a lack of desire to persevere in the task (Brown, 1994). Pat El (1998) recommended scheduling recesses during extended assignments in order to limit the decline in attention and to avoid cumulative mental fatigue.

An efficient teacher and school administrator use timetable as a tool to manage tiring behaviour of the young learners. The concept of tiring of the learners is another potent aspect which is directly related to the quality of learning. A tired pupil cannot learn the labourious and deep concepts easily and effectively. There are some subjects included in their curriculum that require comparatively more hard work and attention to pay. A tired child may not continue effective learning especially in such subjects and results low performance and achievements. A technique may be used to enhance learning in these subjects may be the inclusion of those in the timetable just beginning of school day or after a break of refreshment of the pupil. The objectives of present research work included to find out the effectiveness of timetable as a tool in controlling quality of learning in elementary education.

Methodology:

A number of 20 pupils of standard 4 were randomly selected and divided in two sections namely A and B of 10 students in each. The timetable administered was divided into 8 periods of 35 minutes each after having prayer. After period 4 a break of 35 minutes was also administered to the pupils for having their meals and for relaxes and refreshment. The administered timetable followed a sequence of mathematics (M), Science (Sc), Languages (L) and social studies (SS) in section A and SS, L, Sc and M in section B in period 1, 2 , 3 and 4 during first phase for a period of 30 days. The same timetable was then switched over to period 6, 7, 8 and 9, respectively in second phase for another period of 30 days. An achievement test based on grading system was conducted to evaluate the performance of the pupils under experiment. The achievement test included five grades i.e. grade A (score 1; findings 0-33%), B (score 2; findings 33- 45%), C (score 3; findings 45-60%), D (score 4; findings 60-75%) and E (score 5; findings 75-100%) after completion of above two phases of study i.e. 60 days. Findings of the research in the form of grade achieved by the pupils, were tabulated in meaningful categories and analyzed statistically using randomized block design to draw valid conclusions (Snadecor and Cochran, 1994). SPSS software (SPSS, 1998) was implemented for various statistical calculations for the purpose. Hypothesis decided to test during present investigation were that the achievements of the pupils in two sections with regard to various subjects were similar.

Experimental Findings:

The hypothesis of the research work (Table and Figure) was rejected during the observations of the findings. The highest total achievements (4.13±0.20) were recorded in section A where mathematics and science subjects were taught to the pupils just beginning of the day or after the break, whereas in section B (3.83±0.18) where mathematics and science were taught two periods after beginning of the day or break. The achievement in this section was also recorded to higher even the grand achievements (3.975±0.13). The highest grade in mathematics and science in section A and social studies in section B (4.50±0.22) were observed. The variation in average achievement was highest in mathematics (from 3.00±0.37 to 4.50±0.22) whereas lowest in languages (from 4.00±0.47 to 4.20±0.29). The lowest achievement was also recorded in mathematics (3.00±0.37) in section B.

Mathematics and science are two subjects at elementary level that require at lot of attention to pay during learning in comparison to languages and social studies. If these subjects were offered to the tired pupil (Section B) after learning languages and social studies, they lost their attention and thus their achievements were lowered. Similarly, when they were offered social studies and languages to the tired pupils (section A), the declension in the achievement was again observed but this decline was not so high as observed in section B. This is very much interesting to note that the enhancement and declension in achievements in mathematics and science subjects in these pupils were higher in comparison to those in social studies and languages.

Conclusion:

The pupils of elementary education should be offered mathematics and science subjects either at the beginning of the school day or after the break or refreshment. Languages and social studies may be offered two periods of learning of the subjects requiring high attention to pay. It is recommended that precautions should be taken during construction of timetable that mathematics and science subjects may be mentioned in the frame at the beginning of the school day i.e. periods 1 and 2 or just after the break i.e. periods 5 and 6.

Acknowledgement:

Partial financial assistance received from Institute for Development of Technology for Rural Advancement (IDTRA), Mathura during this experiment is also duly acknowledged.

Dedication:

The article is dedicated to all the people living in the rural area of the country and workers engaged in their advancement.

References:

Indiaedu, 2010. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. www.indiaedu.com. Oct. 26.

Irwin Goldberg, I. 1967. Quality education: A definition. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2 0 0 5. The Urban Review, 2 (1):3.

Snedecor, G.W. and Cochran, W.G. 1994. Statistical Methods, 8th Ed., Ames, Iowa State University Press.

SPSS, 1998. SPSS for Windows. Standard Version. New York, SPSS Inc., released on 18 December.

Worldbank, 2010. Elementary Education in India. www.worldbank.org. Oct. 26.

dictionary.reference.com, 2011. The Timetable: Meaning. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/timetable.

en.wikipedia.org , 2011. The Timetable: Meaning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_timetable.

BROWN, I. D. (1994). Driver fatigue. Human Factors, 36(2), 298–314.

DAHL, R. E. (1999). The consequences of insufficient sleep for adolescents: Links between sleep and emotional regulation. Phi Delta Kappan, 80(5), 354–359.

DINGERS, D. F., & KRIBBS, N. B. (1991). Performing while sleepy: Effects of experimentally induced sleepiness. In T.H. MONK (Ed.), Sleep, sleepiness and performance, human performance and cognition (pp. 97–128). New York: Wiley.
Klein, J. 2004. Planning Middle School Schedules for Improved Attention and Achievement. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 48: 4, 441-450.

PAT EL, L. (1998). The connection between the order of checking exams, the time spent checking the exams and the seniority of the teacher and between the grades given in a composition examination. Unpublished master’s thesis, Bar Ilan University, School of Education, Ramat Gan, Israel.

SCHWARTZ, D. A. (2000). Fatigue of inhibitory processes in selective attention: Experimental support for a theory of international thought and action (Doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan). Dissertation Abstracts International, 61, 2B.

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Meet the author

Dr Awadhesh Kishore
Ph.D.
Area of writing: Numerous
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