Starting from school, we engage in self-education throughout our lives. Most often, we resort to higher or specialized institutions, courses and trainings for help, and when choosing which we come across the concept of “academic hour”.
Older children are already accustomed to such loads, so the academic hour increases over time to 45 minutes. And in higher institutions, they usually also use such a time scale. As a rule, one academic hour involves studying one subject, but in universities one academic hour is not enough, so they are combined into pairs. Therefore, two academic hours are equal to one pair.
Based on the lesson planning by the teacher or teacher, this period of time is enough to test previously acquired knowledge, study a new topic and explain tasks that are given for independent study. The process of integrating the domestic into the Balon (European) one fully satisfies such standards.
The entire education system is built on the concept of “academic hour”. This is how much it costs for the entire course of study, you can calculate it yourself. An academic hour is equal to 45 minutes, one month is four academic weeks (usually five days). Typically, one year of study for each subject includes 72 academic hours (lessons).
When receiving a diploma of graduation from a higher educational institution, you will also receive a supplement to it. It lists all the courses you have taken and how many class hours you have allocated to study each subject individually. Based on this data, your employer can determine the level of your professional training.
By attending all kinds of courses and trainings, you will also come across this concept. But in this case, this time will be of a commercial nature. Therefore, before making payment for services provided to you, you should clarify the duration of the classes. Sometimes many are mistaken, having paid for the service for one academic hour, they think that they were supposed to be allocated 60 astronomical minutes. But, as it turns out in the end, it was originally supposed to be only 45 minutes. Although some private offices can increase the time to an hour or more without breaks.
Based on the information received above, you can now easily plan your time. So, for example, knowing that the lesson will last one and a half hours, you will recalculate the time using the formula “one academic hour + break + one academic hour.” Considering that a break usually lasts 10-15 minutes, your lesson will last 1 hour 45 minutes. This information will be very useful for those who often have to use regular routes, or who simply go on a business trip for advanced training courses in another locality.
We all remember well that at school lessons lasted 45 minutes. In between there were breaks where they could chat, discuss vital issues, eat a sandwich or copy homework. On a long one, 20-30 minutes, you could have time to go to the dining room and have breakfast. What is an academic hour? This is those same 45 minutes. True, not everywhere, not in all educational institutions. In most countries, including Russia, an academic hour is 40-50 minutes. In universities, classes are usually double. This means that a pair - a unit of instructional time - lasts from 80 to 90 minutes, or about an hour and a half.
In kindergarten and primary school
It is well known that the ability to concentrate for long periods of time changes with age. If classes in a developmental school (for children under 5-6 years old) should last only 20-25 minutes, then there is a scientific basis for this. Children simply will not be able to concentrate longer, “exorbitant inhibition” will begin and the effect of the lessons will be minimal. We are talking, of course, about studying one subject without changing the type of activity. In kindergarten, senior groups and elementary school, the ability to maintain attention is maintained for 35-40 minutes. That is why the “academic hour” or study hour in the lower grades is, as a rule, shorter than the standard one. Experienced teachers know that even during this time attention cannot be maintained at the same level. Therefore, lessons are planned with the possibility of changing activities and different tasks. At the beginning of the lesson, children need a few minutes to concentrate. The most productive time will be 15-20 minutes in the middle of the lesson. And by the end, rest and summing up are simply necessary, since the children are already tired. Competent teachers set aside this time for educational games.
In high school
Teenagers may "work" for a longer period. That is why double lessons are often introduced in high schools. Although the effectiveness of such planning in terms of learning the material can be questioned, this practice helps teenagers prepare for the “adult” schedule that is accepted in universities. There, an academic hour is 45 minutes, classes are conducted in “pairs” without breaks. Those who have studied or taught at a university know that attention drops sharply towards the end of the lesson. Changes last only five to ten minutes between pairs. Sometimes teachers take a “smoke break” in the middle of a lecture or seminar, and this is very important. Even such a short switch of attention will allow you to better perceive the material in the second academic hour.
Traditions of the "quarter"
In most European countries and America, the duration of classes is the same as in Russia. But there is an interesting difference in the concept of “academic lateness.” We believe that a teacher may be delayed for a quarter of an hour, and 15 minutes after the scheduled start of classes, students have every right to leave the classroom. In Europe, things are a little different. And this is due to the fact that previously time was counted by church bells. The schedule indicated the start of classes at the beginning of the astronomical hour, but the transition between campuses required several minutes. Therefore, a tradition has developed that the “academic quarter” is compulsory, lectures begin late.
Timing of training cycles
In addition, the unit of measurement of time allotted for mastering the program or part of it is the academic hour. How much should the entire course be, you ask? It all depends on the subject and the program itself. For example, when teaching foreign languages, a block that provides a transition to another level (from A1 to A2, from B2 to C1) is considered to be 120-240 hours. Much depends on both the methodology and the intensity of the training. The author of these lines had the opportunity to plan courses for different age categories, of varying duration and cost. So, the least effective practice is classes exceeding 2 academic hours. By the end of the lesson, students of any age are so tired that the third part - another 45 minutes - turns into torture for both the teacher and the listeners. Psychophysiological characteristics cannot be fooled. The body adjusts to the academic hour, during which time a person can be focused. The second 45 minutes can be devoted to repetition and consolidation. But everything that exceeds this duration should either be given to games and entertainment, or will simply be wasted time.
Minute is a unit of time equal to 60 seconds or 1/60 of an hour. Abbreviated Russian designation: min, international: min. "Minute" is a word of Latin origin. Its meaning translated into Russian sounds like “smallness”.
Academic hour is the name of the training hour in vocational education institutions. It is not equal to astronomical and is established by regulatory documents. In general, an academic hour lasts 45 minutes (can vary between 45-50 minutes). In universities, one lesson lasts 2 academic hours, that is, 90 minutes and is called a “study pair” (“pair”).
Translation formulas
There are 45 minutes in one academic hour, 1/45 of an academic hour in one minute.
How to convert academic hours to minutes
To convert academic hours into minutes, you need to multiply the number of academic hours by 45.
NUMBER OF MINUTES = NUMBER OF ACADEMIC HOURS * 45
For example, in order to find out how many minutes there are in 4 academic hours, you need 4*45 = 180 minutes.
How to convert minutes to academic hours
To convert minutes to academic hours, you need to divide the number of minutes by 45.
NUMBER OF ACADEMIC HOURS = NUMBER OF MINUTES / 45
For example, in order to find out how many academic hours are in 360 minutes, you need 360/45 = 8 academic hours.
Understanding such a unit of time as an academic hour, on the one hand, does not cause difficulties, but in a certain context it can lead to an ambiguous understanding. In particular, the rules established by individual educational institutions may make some adjustments.
Academic hour is how many minutes
Despite the fact that the concept of an academic hour has existed since approximately the mid-twentieth century, it has not yet become widespread and is much less known than the term “classroom hour”.
Often, university students ask the question of how long an academic hour will be, as well as how many academic hours will be included in a certain period of usual time.
Most online sources clearly indicate that an hour in the academic sense is equal to 45 minutes. But it is known that this value is not so clear. Unlike the clearly defined astronomical hour, the duration of the academic hour is ambiguous. Its value is determined individually, based on the procedure established by each educational institution. This information can be found by reading the charter of the university or academy.
At the same time, the academic hour is standard in secondary schools (with the exception of junior grades, where this period can be reduced, often up to 40 minutes). The duration of an hour in vocational schools and most higher educational institutions is determined by their charter. But often, unless other information is indicated in this document, this figure is equal to 45 minutes.
Application of the term academic hour
The concept of “academic hour”, due to its specificity, has a very limited scope of use. It is mainly used in educational institutions of various types to create class schedules, as well as to calculate the workload of university teachers.
In this case, students, as a rule, are interested in the duration of a given value. But for teachers, what is more important is not the duration of the academic hour, but their number provided by law, which is explained by the peculiarities of calculating their salaries. In turn, the size of the salary is primarily influenced by this indicator.
Thus, in order to find out how many minutes an academic hour will be in a particular educational institution, you need to study its charter, which necessarily contains this information.
Everyone has heard the term “academic hour,” but not everyone knows what exactly this concept includes and why it cannot be identified with the astronomical sixty-minute hour. The thing is that this concept is much broader and depends on the regulations of a particular educational institution. But first things first.
Astronomical or academic?
Since the second half of the twentieth century, the phrase “academic hour” has entered the everyday life of schoolchildren, students and teachers. One of its features is that there is no fixed value of time during which this very hour passes. It can be from 15 to 60 minutes or more. Therefore, it is quite difficult to answer how many of these unique units of measurement are contained in an astronomical hour.
Use of the term
Typically, the concept of “academic hour” is used when drawing up schedules and work plans for higher educational institutions. It is in them that the workload of teachers and students, the required number of positions at a school or university, and even the salaries of teachers are calculated.
Higher education institutions
Until recently, the size of an academic hour was established by the internal regulations of the university, but had to fit into 50 minutes. Today, this restriction has been lifted, and now the academic hour of classes can be identical to the astronomical hour, or even exceed it. Such liberties are allowed in specialty, master's, doctoral and other areas of postgraduate education. This made it much easier for students to attend classes, since the “floating” hour allowed them to combine their main profession with advanced training.
Secondary specialized education
Everything here is strictly regulated: 45 minutes, no more and no less. “Like at school,” you will say, and you will be right. But there are additional restrictions on the total number of academic hours; it should not exceed thirty-six hours. This is taken into account when drawing up a plan for theoretical and practical classes, the workload of teachers, as well as the correlation of these plans with the state-established holidays for students.
School
Everything here is somewhat more complicated than it might seem at first glance. Firstly, the academic hour is equal to the already familiar 45 minutes, but only for students in grades two to eleven. First-graders are in a special position. Their schedule depends not only on the academic load, but also on the time of year outside. It is believed that in the first two months of the school year, an academic hour is equal to thirty-five minutes, and in total there can be no more than three classes per day. Then for another two months the value of the hour does not change, but their number increases to four. And now, after the winter holidays, kids, like adults, switch to a forty-five-minute format, four lessons a day.
Preschools
In kindergartens, everything depends on the age group of the students. At the national level, it is regulated that for children under four years of age, the duration of continuous education should be no more than fifteen minutes a day. This is the time that educators are given to work directly with their students.
For children from four to five years old, the duration is increased by five minutes, and it turns out that the academic hour becomes twenty minutes. And immediately before school, at the age of six, it is allowed to conduct classes with children lasting up to twenty-five minutes inclusive.
A few more nuances
There are also concepts of a “study pair”, which consists of two academic hours, separated by a break of five minutes. But not every educational institution adheres to this rule, since it is not legally enshrined anywhere. It is usually more common in schools. In universities, classes last three to four academic hours, separated by two uneven breaks.
Another term - “academic lateness” - is also used among students. It is equal to fifteen minutes, after which students and the teacher are required to “find” each other, or students have the right to leave the classroom without explanation. However, this rule is usually ignored due to fear of receiving administrative punishment for not attending classes.
We figured out the difference between a regular hour and an academic hour. Hours of work are calculated depending on the field of education in which the concept is considered. If these are preschoolers, then the main emphasis is on games and maintaining health, and learning is relegated to the background, and schools and universities have different policies. Therefore, when calculating the teaching load and the number of required hours, teachers, educators, teachers can be extremely scrupulous, because their income depends on this. Sometimes the total number of students present in class is also included in this equation, and then the struggle for attendance begins. But these are already specific, regulated by the internal norms of the university.
