Block Scheduling of Classes:
Can UBC Advance Personal Sustainability
and a Powerful Global Example ?

A. Some Assertions
Assertion 1: For many people in the industrialized world in this Digital/Information Age, everydayness feels like the antithesis of personal sustainability. The quantity and quality of the responsibilities that we must meet, and the rate at which these commitments and opportunities seem to bombard us are all obstacles to personal and institutional sustainability. In addition, the unsustainable bizzyness that is so corrosive to desirable and sustainable lifestyles results substantially from the fragmentation of our lives between a myriad of tasks and choices.

Assertion 2: A key element of the sustainability transition is personal sustainability, the deliberate discovery and informed selection of workstyle and lifestyle options that promote personal wellness and sustainability.

Assertion 3: Defragmentation of workstyles and lifestyles is a key step to advancing the sustainability transition. Some may clearly recognize that fragmentation is one of (and perhaps the major) contributing factor to personal, institutional and societal unsustainability, and that fragmented lifestyles/workstyles impact both biophysical and social dimensions of (un)sustainability. As outlined below, a solution of defragmentation can be enacted by individuals, working groups and large institutions, including UBC; in our particular case by the adoption of block scheduling/block teaching.

B. Present Situation: 50 minute classes
We educate most of our undergraduate students by meeting with them 2 or 3 times per week for 50 minutes. This time structure of 50 minute classes literally dates back to medieval times when the educated elite owned books, students lacked them and lectures were undertaken so that students would directly transcribe the spoken word and create new books. About an hour is the typical maximum attention span for such rote activity; thus, "50 minutes classes" evolved and have persisted until today.

C. Problems to overcome:

  1. Each student's intellectual attention is typically fragmented between several different classes on any given day. As resources for faculty decline and more tasks appear, faculty energy is increasingly fragmented as well, resulting in lower efficiency, increased stress, and decreased fulfillment. These same patterns are clearly evident for staff.
  2. Fragmentation has a substantial biophysical costs (e.g. commute-related fossil fuel emissions) and social costs (bizzy lifestyles; little time to engage more thoughtfully in the diversity of activities/opportunities at UBC that build community. Simply stated, for many UBC is a "commuter school").
  3. The demographics of UBC undergrads continues to evolve. Many students work part-time, are returning to school, and/or have family responsibilities to meet. 50 minute classes translates to coming to UBC "every day" which greatly interferes with these responsibilities.
  4. A 50 minute class time is often insufficient for fruitful engagement in critical thinking and problem solving. As soon as the foundation of a new concept is laid through "lecture" and "discussion", 50 minutes is up! Much momentum is lost by renewing a discussion "next time". Clearly, the structure of 50 minute classes strongly limits incorporation of abstract thinking, "problem-based learning", novel educational resources (internet etc.) and "interdisciplinarity".

D. Solution: Block Scheduling

Suggestion: Many (most) undergraduate classes should be scheduled in 2.5 to 4 hour blocks, meeting once per week. There are many advantages:
  1. Block scheduling would be an obvious plus for students that have work and/or family responsibilities; it also minimizes commuting days from home to UBC (smaller footprint!)
  2. Longer class meetings would enhance opportunities for innovation, invention, and discovery in the classroom. Learning, exploration, critical thinking and problem solving would all be enhanced In many arenas, block teaching presents the best opportunity to explore complex, research-scale problems into the classroom, thus enhancing the synergy of research and education).
  3. Longer gaps between meeting times nourishes incentives and creates opportunities for students to teach themselves and each other with rapidly expanding educational media (i.e. distance education resources; communication with classmates and instructors via internet; web-based educational resources; also: reading course materials!).
  4. By example, block scheduling models effective behavior for professional productivity, by focusing oneself on the immediate task at hand. The alternative is a fragmented approach, where students become lost in the haze of distractions that continue to multiply for all of us in the Information Age.
  5. Productivity and satisfaction of faculty would be advanced by block scheduling. Faculty understand that the fragmentation of "teaching days" reduces overall research and administrative productivity and increases stress and dissatisfaction.
  6. At the very worst, block scheduling would work even for a dogged "lecture-style" instructors... these faculty would simply insert 10 minute breaks each hour, and carry on... These individual cases would be undesirable, however, this transition-phase downside presented by a few dogmatic faculty would be limited by education (eg. Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth), attrition (the demographic of UBC's faculty is changing rapidly) and natural selection. A few transitional problems should not be a substantial obstacle to enacting a profound vision for personal and institutional sustainability.
  7. The benefits to staff are evident as well: defragmentation is a simple strategy for building sustainable workstyles and lifestyles.

E. Closing Comments
The advantages of implementing block teaching are obvious. There is a research literature on the subject that warrants closer inspection. Block teaching presents no real "cost" to students, staff, faculty or the administration. UBC will benefit by stepping forward as a visionary institution devoted to educational and scholarly excellence, hugely complemented by advancing biophysical and social sustainability. Block scheduling would be a huge step, and would enhance sustainability in all areas. We recommend that the Sustainability Advisory Committee appoint an ad hoc committee to explore the practicality and feasibility of implementing block teaching at UBC and we welcome partners in exploring and advancing this concept.