Self-paced blended learning shows that a timetabled lesson/period in a traditional classroom is an arbitrary artificial construct of the teacher’s mind
At best, it is a well-intentioned educated guess of the amount of learning a student can undertake in a predetermined period of a timetable. At worst, it is a waste of students’ time.
In a traditional classroom a teacher usually draws on past experience and other resources to estimate the amount of learning that a student can undertake, and delivers that amount of teaching/learning.
Thus, a teacher will deliver 40 minutes (or whatever the timetable dictates) of teaching/learning. However, “40 minutes of learning” is a meaningless concept. This rate of teaching/learning is really an artificial construct; it may have nothing to do with reality.
(Next page: Assisting students with different learning needs)