Debate over school day models from the perception of retired teachers

Abstract

The debate on the adequacy of a continuous or non-continuous school day model in Spain is still a burning topic. This paper presents analyses by 250 retired primary teachers on the types of school day, taking account factors such as student performance, family organization, their repercussion on students' sleeping hours and the training of both teachers and students. The results show that most teachers support the idea of a continuous school-day system as it makes more time available. However, the impact on academic performance, student concentration and fatigue is a variable which may be used to support either school-day system.