Structured Versus Unstructured

This week’s article summary is Too Many Structured Activities May Hinder Children's Executive Functioning.

Just as last week’s summary dealt with direct instruction versus self-discovery debate, this one focuses on another big topics in education:  student unstructured time versus adult structured activities.

Research shows that kids benefit more from unstructured, child-directed time. When kids have opportunities to think and decide for themselves, they develop vital executive functioning skills that are key to subsequent success and happiness in school and life.

From 7^th-12^th grade I went to an independent-private school. My wife attended the local public school. Our school experiences were very different and resulted in very different adjustments to college.

I had small classes. The teaching style was some lecture but a lot more open discussion. As we read and studied novels and textbooks, we learned to take our own notes, form our own opinions, and share our questions and thoughts during class. Exams were mostly essay, so we learned how to write by writing, including how to support and substantiate our ideas.

My wife had much bigger classes that were primarily lecture-based. She never had to read a full novel (instead reading snippets in anthologies—remember Norton Anthologies?). She took some notes in class but often just had to copy an outline the teacher had written in chalk on the blackboard (again, I’m dating myself, I know). Homework was mostly worksheets and tests were for the most part multiple choice questions.

When we got to college, I breezed through my freshman year not because I was smart but because my school experiences had helped me develop the study/organizational skills and personal responsibility needed for college. My wife, on the other hand, struggled mightily because she hadn’t had those same opportunities in middle and high school; it wasn’t until her junior—even senior--year that she began to understand and then implement what was needed to succeed in college.

Like the direct instruction/self-discovery debate, the pragmatic reality is kids need both structured and unstructured learning opportunities. The key for us as educators is to make sure we provide the full range of opportunities to optimize habit, skills, and attitude foundation building and student learning.

Joe

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When children spend more time in structured activities, they get worse at working toward goals, making decisions, and regulating their behavior.

Kids learn more when they have the responsibility to decide for themselves what they're going to do with their time.

Psychologists at the University of Colorado studied six-year olds and found that the kids who spent more time in less-structured activities had more highly-developed self-directed executive function.

Self-directed executive function develops mostly during childhood, and it includes any mental processes that help us work toward achieving goals—like planning, decision making, manipulating information, switching between tasks, and inhibiting unwanted thoughts and feelings. It is an early indicator of school readiness and academic performance, according to previous research cited in the study, and it even predicts success into adulthood. Children with higher executive function will be healthier, wealthier, and more socially stable throughout their lives.

The researchers conjecture that when children are in control of how they spend their time, they are able to get more practice working toward goals and figuring out what to do next. For instance, the researchers write, a child with a free afternoon ahead of her might decide to read a book. Once she's finished, she might decide to draw a picture about the book, and then she'll decide to show the drawing to her family. This child will learn more than another child who completes the same activities, but is given explicit instructions throughout the process. 

“Structured time could slow the development of self-directed control, since adults in such scenarios can provide external cues and reminders about what should happen, and when," the researchers write in the study. "The ability to self-direct can spell the difference between an independent student, who can be relied upon to get her work done while chaos reigns around her, and a dependent, aimless student. When we reduce the amount of free playtime in American preschools and kindergartens, our children stand to lose more than an opportunity to play house and cops and robbers."