Everyone heard the term “academic hour,” but not everyone knows what exactly is included in this concept and why it cannot be identified with an astronomical sixty-minute hour. The thing is that this concept is much broader and depends on the regulations of a particular educational institution. But first things first.
Astronomical or academic?
Since the second half of the twentieth century, the phrase “academic hour” has entered the everyday life of schoolchildren, students and teachers. One of its features is that there is no fixed value of the time for which this very hour passes. It can be from 15 to 60 minutes or more. Therefore, it is rather difficult to answer how many such peculiar units of measurement are contained in the astronomical hour.
Use of the term
Typically, the concept of "academic hour" is used in scheduling and work plans of higher educational institutions. It is in them that the load of teachers and students, the required number of posts in a school or university, and even the salaries of teachers are calculated.
Higher education institutions
More recently, the size of the academic hour was established by the internal charter of the university, but had to fit in 50 minutes. To date, this restriction has been removed, and now the academic hour of classes can be identical to the astronomical hour, or even exceed it. Such liberties are allowed in specialty, master's, doctoral and other postgraduate education programs. This made it easier for students to attend classes, since the “floating” hour allowed combining the main profession with advanced training.
Secondary special education
Everything is strictly regulated here: 45 minutes, no more and no less. “Like at school,” you say, and you’ll be right. But there are additional restrictions on the total number of academic hours, it should not exceed thirty-six hours. This is taken into account when drawing up a plan of theoretical and practical classes, the load of teachers, as well as the correlation of these plans with the state holidays for students.
School
Here everything is somewhat more confusing than it might seem at first inexperienced glance. Firstly, the academic hour is equal to the familiar 45 minutes, but only for students in the second to eleventh grades. First graders are in a special position. Their schedule depends not only on the workload, but also on the time of year outside the window. It is believed that in the first two months of the school year, the academic hour is thirty-five minutes, and in total there can be no more than three classes. Then, for another two months, the hour does not change, but their number increases to four. And now, after the winter holidays, the kids, like adults, switch to a forty-five-minute format, four classes a day.
Preschools
In kindergartens, it all depends on the age group of students. It is regulated at the national level that children under four years of age should have no more than fifteen minutes a day of continuous education. This is the time allotted to educators for direct work with their wards.
For children from four to five years, the duration is increased by five minutes, and it turns out that the academic hour is already twenty minutes. And immediately in front of the school, at the age of six, classes with children lasting up to twenty-five minutes are allowed.
Some more nuances
They also distinguish between the concepts of “study pair”, which is two academic hours, separated by a break of five minutes.But not every educational institution adheres to this rule, since it is not legally fixed anywhere. Usually it is more common in schools. At universities, they do classes of three to four academic hours, separated by two uneven breaks.
Another term - "academic lateness" - is also used in the student community. It is equal to fifteen minutes, after which students and the teacher are obliged to “find” each other, or students have the right to leave the audience without explanation. However, this rule is usually ignored for fear of receiving administrative punishment for not attending classes.
We figured out how the usual and academic hours differ. Hours of work are calculated depending on in which field of education this concept is considered. If these are preschoolers, then the main emphasis is on games and maintaining health, and education is being relegated to the background, while schools and universities have a different policy. Therefore, when calculating the academic load and the number of required hours, teachers, educators, teachers are extremely scrupulous, because their income depends on this. Sometimes the total number of students attending classes is also added to this equation, and then the struggle for attendance begins. But this is already particular, regulated by the internal standards of the university.
