Hi Dan,
      	
                Others make very good points about just letting people excuse themselves for a few minutes, as needed.  If that is not a sensible alternative,  I'd give them the break.   I know where you are coming from (I hate to give up that valuable time, too), but, to me, two hours is too long and those extra three hours are more than offset by far less "quality time" (student engagement).   That is especially true if the class is predominantly a lecture.  Even during the fifty minutes of class, you had better work "breaks" into the way the class proceeds - something new or different to "change things up."
      	
	Dan, you bring up a good gauge for determining whether to take a break:  If you think you would probably want the break, then you know most students feel that way.   
	
	I always try to keep any break limited to less time than what the students would naturally take, by saying beforehand that breaks are just for 7 minutes.  Enough time to get up, stretch, take a quick bathroom break, check for urgent messages, but not enough to wander around the block, run errands, go to Starbucks, or run a mile (unless you are in very good shape!).  Of course, as the semester proceeds, students may catch on that breaks are really for about ten minutes, so more active measures are needed to get them back -  actually calling them back in, or just starting the class, or, as Mark suggests (and it is my favorite tactic, too), playing some music.  Break music or not, I often segue into a video skit or an in-class "performance" and the students usually come back quickly.  IF you start up with something featuring classmates and props, students may even feel almost an urgency to trot back into the room and not miss anything fun. :) 

                Robert

Robert W. Emerson
Managing Editor, American Business Law Journal 
Huber Hurst Professor of Business Law
Hough Graduate School of Business
Warrington College of Business Administration, University of Florida
Affiliated Professor, Center for European Studies
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Florida


-----Original Message-----
From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Daniel Warner
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2013 11:01 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Cost-benefit of break for 2 hour classes?

Hi Colleagues,

Here's a non-threatening question: If you teach a two-hour class (or one hour and 50 minutes, technically), do you give the students a break half way?

Traditionally, or typically, I have not.  The extra minutes add up over the course of 9 weeks (on the quarter system) to three hours of "extra" class time!  That's a lot.  Moreover, the start-up time after a break is never entirely crisp--there are always some stragglers, some shuffling and talking and such.

But I'm thinking about changing my ways.  I wouldn't like to sit in a lecture hall for two hours without a break, probably.  Does the refreshment of a break justify its cost in time and class-room continuity?  Do students have a shorter attention span now than they did 35 years ago?

Thank you,

Dan





Prof. Daniel M. Warner
Dept. of Accounting (Business Legal Studies) MS 9071, Parks Hall 401 Western Washington University
516 High St.
Bellingham, WA 98225
360 650-3390
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