Is the split or continuous school day more beneficial?

In this interview, Francisco López Rupérez, director of the Chair of Educational Policies at Camilo José Cela University and former president of the State School Board, addresses a key question in the field of education: is the split or continuous school day more beneficial? Based on recent research and the principles of chronobiology, López Rupérez highlights how students’ biological cycles influence their academic performance. He points out the advantages of the split school day, which synchronizes better with circadian rhythms and favors more effective learning, while reflecting on the organizational challenges it poses and the need to balance the interests of students, families and teachers to ensure quality education. Q. Is a split school day or a continuous school day better? There are various studies on the Spanish situation, some of them recent, which show the superiority of the split workday over the continuous workday, due to its differential influence on performance and the possibility of organizing personal timetables that are, in general terms, more appropriate. But the most relevant evidence comes from a more fundamental approach than the purely statistical one, which provides a causal explanation for the differences observed in a sample approach. Chronobiology and chronopsychology have a lot to say when it comes to school timetables. According to the available scientific results, of the different types of biological cycles identified by science, it is the so-called circadian cycles – which, as their name indicates, have a period of about one day – that are most relevant to the problem of the school day. As empirical research has revealed for decades, mood, attention span and performance in verbal tests, spatial structuring and arithmetic operations evolve synchronously with the cycle. These biological or psychobiological rhythms, which affect physiology and also affect behavior, have endogenous factors controlled internally by a biological clock located in the brain, specifically in the hypothalamus. This clock determines a periodic sequence that translates into hormonal secretions and blood levels of different hormones that evolve cyclically -or in an alternating manner- in a period of approximately twenty-four hours. This periodic alteration, of a physiological nature, is transferred to more easily measurable aspects, such as temperature, heart rate or blood pressure, but also to behavioral aspects that concern school problems and affect students’ performance and performance. Although there are some variations depending on individuals and age, empirical studies have shown that cognitive performance peaks in childhood at around 11:30 in the morning, then declines to a minimum at 13:40 and increases again in the afternoon timetable to a new maximum at around 16:30. Q. What are the positive and negative aspects of each of them for students, families, teachers, schools, etc.? The positive aspects of the split workday derive from the fundamentals of how the human body works, which affects the quality of learning, performance and healthier lifestyles, with alternating periods of activity and rest periods that are synchronized with the biological cycles of children and adolescents. The apparently positive aspects of the split school day have to do with the availability of time for recreational and extracurricular activities. But this, which was the initial argument used by the centers in defense of the model, has been diluted in its practical application, multiplying the cases of the “children of the key”, which consists of children arriving home alone and finding themselves there alone during the afternoon. This phenomenon especially affects socially disadvantaged sectors, since we know that the higher the income level of families, the higher the percentage of those who send their children to schools with a split day. Q. Are you in favor of imposing a type of school day on public schools or of each school deciding whether it prefers to have a split or continuous school day? I think we would all agree that, at this point, the best interests of the child should be the priority. For this reason, I would recommend progressively retracing the path taken as a general public policy. Undoubtedly, as is always the case in education, conflicting interests must be reconciled: on the one hand, those of students and families, and on the other, those of teachers. But there are organizational formulas that would allow this to be done: for example, by defining morning, afternoon or mixed timetables for teachers; increasing the number of teachers available at the expense of a minimum increase in the student/teacher ratios, within the limits established by law, which would free up resources at a global level, etc. And in that etc. I include solutions that our good heads of studies would be in a position to provide. It is all a matter of thinking, leading, convincing and negotiating.