Paradox of student (over)load in elementary school

Abstract

Student overload caused by school related demands has becoming a paradox. The paradox lies in the fact that there have been constant attempts to diminish student overload but it continuously increases over time, which is opposite of the expected development. Going to school is demanding for students regardless of the type of school they attend. The most challenging task is to acquire knowledge in school subjects and extra-curricular activities in order to develop one's competences. When students obligations exceed their psychological and physical abilities, i. e. when the tasks cause too much exhaustion and are very time-consuming we speak of student overload. Overload can be observed as a result of great demands put upon students and which are not in line with their developmental stage.

Student overload has been a constant and continuous problem of compulsory schooling in Croatia. The phenomenon can be tracked back to 1874 when schooling was made compulsory. For decades the school infrastructure has been developed in a way that was supposed to make requirements optimal to students, but in the end it has become the source of student overload and it refers to curriculum, textbooks and similar literature, assessment and grading system as a criterion for advancement to the next class, extra-curricular activities. Even in the strategic documents on contemporary education (such as National Framework for Changes in Education System, 2002; Elementary school Curriculum, 2006; National Curriculum Framework, 2011; Strategy of Education, Science and Technology, 2013) there is the attempt to determine student overload and reduce it to optimal amount. Despite those longstanding measures, the issue of student overload remains unresolved. On the contrary, it shows its cumulative nature by becoming even bigger in size over time. Previous theoretical and empirical research has confirmed that students experience overload on daily basis and has detected its sources within and outside the school. Sources of student overload in school include: curriculum, teachers and their attitudes about teaching and assessment, textbooks and other kinds of information sources. Sources of student overload outside the school are: homework, parents with their expectations and ambition, and student involvement in a great number of extra-curricular activities.

The research study was conducted in school year 2014./2015. with the aim of defining factors of student overload and exploring students' view on this phenomenon alongside with their parents' opinion. It mostly focuses on how time-consuming students' obligations are, putting aside the question if curriculum demands are too difficult for them. The study basically refers to the analysis of temporal overload of students. Explored are also curricula, attitude about overload rooted in assessment, textbooks, amount of individual work at school and at home, as well as students’ opinion about their work overload, alongside with their parents opinion on the same subject. In order to examine the trends of student overload at school, teaching plans dating from 1871 to 1946 and from 1958 to 2006 (used in 2016), together with timetables of average students were analyzed. It is confirmed that teaching plans constantly play a significant role in student overload. At the end of elementary schooling students spend on average 35 hours per week at school. Obligatory subjects make up 27 hours in all teaching plans examined, whereas hours of elective subjects show the tendency of increasing over time. In their timetables it can be observed that an average student spends slightly over 7 hours per day at school in his or her last year of elementary school. On the other hand, teachers who work with them are expected to spend 25 hours per week in classroom. Compered to teachers, older students must be 1.5 times longer in class, and younger students spend there as much hours as their teachers.

Students confirmed that they experience overload that is connected to assessment. As a result of a school policy rule exams can be written 140 times during a school year, at least in theory. That means that students can take 4 written exams per week (35x4=140). In that way student overload caused by so many exams becomes evident. The same problem is pointed out by parents who participated in the study.
Textbooks and required literature also proved to be a dominant source of student overload. The amount of required reading has become so large that students spend a lot of time to go through texts using two desirable ways of reading (informational reading and critical reading). On the required reading students would have to spend on average 3 hours daily.
When comparing student overload in 1974 and 2016, it becomes obvious that it has not decreased but increased over the years. The biggest growth can be ascribed to proscribed textbooks, the scope of which almost doubled in the observed period. Students claim that textbooks, required literature and teachers approach to it contribute largely to student overload. Some students stated additionally that there are teachers who add even more literature to the reading list.
The way in which students work individually during elementary schooling is also explored. It is detected that individual work at school and at home contributes to overall student overload as they find it time-consuming.
In spite of the fact that both parents and students claim that there is student overload present in contemporary schools, they do not seem to mind it much, as students take up ambitiously many extra-curricular activities. The participants of the study (parents and students) strongly agree about student overload, arguing that there are many individual differences. According to them, 20% of students cannot fulfill their obligation because they would have to study 3-4 or more hours every day.
Sources of student overload which were theoretically determined and selected are now confirmed by this empirical study. The results show that there is student overload in contemporary school and point out to the factors contributing to student overload in elementary school. While there is legally regulated work overload of adult citizens it is not the case with students. Children aged 12 to 15 are expected to study for more hours than their teachers are expected to teach. There have been constant attempts to decrease student overload but the opposite has taken place. Because of that evident discrepancy between the expected and real outcome of the policy action, the phenomenon can be labelled as a paradox. The results of the conducted study indicate that similar paradox continues to exist in 2016 as well.