[BioEducator87]

Hello! When I first started teaching, I was informed that I taught too long and that I should limit my instruction to 10-15 minutes. So now I have been doing about 15 minutes average of instruction/modeling. Is this sufficient? How long do you provide instruction?

[NerdTeach]

I usually only go for about 15 minutes total. I usually start with letting the students check their homework answers that I post on the board. (I teach high school math and science, so there is homework almost every night, and the students are old enough to check themselves.) My lesson might start with 5-10 minutes, do a video, then 10 more, then homework or practice time. Or it might be all chunked together, but broken up with videos or songs or discussion. It completely depends on the day. But I try to avoid lecturing for more than 20 minutes.

[Fenwick]

Interesting the concern of informers is "how much" as opposed to "how well". In other words, effective teachers do not stop at minute 15, minute 20 or minute 10 and say, "Okay class, according to the clock you have all learned so pass your papers in." Effective teachers are concerned with performance as the determining factor of "how long" to keep teaching. With that being said, have you ever started a lesson and canned it, realizing what you planned was not the correct delivery (I have)? And have you ever planned a lesson for 15-20 minutes and, due to students' interest and engagement, extended it by adding an extra skill or concept?

Suppose a teacher does a direct lesson for 45 minutes and the entire class including the bottom third are engaged, able to demonstrate mastery by performance and discriminate error when given a quiz. Suppose another teacher directs the same lesson for 15 minutes and at the end 80% of top students demonstrate mastery while 10% of the bottom students are able to perform and the middle of the class is at 60%. Which lesson would you say is more effective? Students are not cans of fruit cocktail coming down the assembly line where production can be measured by the number of cans stacked on a pallet in 15 minutes.

[BioEducator87]

Well tell that to my principal and other "experts" that says that instruction should not last over 20 minutes.

[Cat woman]

Brain research has it that a person can attend to the lesson for 1 minute per year of age. So for example, if you teach 10 year olds—10 minutes of direct instruction/mini lesson.

[Claire]

I teach 5th so it depends on the age. Some lessons are more teacher driven and direct Instruction and some are not. It depends on the lesson. Sometimes I teach for 10 min and sometimes 45. The key is to build in talk time and movement. If you do that it's fine.

"One minute per year of age" does not fit actual research. This is one of those guidelines that no one has ever provided a shred of evidence for. Attention span is massively task dependent.

[Lakeside]

Attention span is massively task dependent.

I think I'm going to post that quote!