The article describes aspects of learning time management and credentials in high-school and college, having two guide marks: high-school teachers’ opinion regarding credentials and college students’ opinion (2nd year) about how overloaded their schedule is.
We are considering relevant to analyze the relation between the number of hours spent in class and the number of hours spent in the library for individual study, assignments, projects, etc. in order to develop a credential system according to the students’ real needs, the mental health requirements concerning intellectual work, and their future profession expectations.
There still are curriculum programs that do not respect these criteria, being excessively overloaded but having an insufficient number of credentials. A lot of subjects need to be teach so there is a few amount of time left for differentiation, cooperative and active learning. Even if the teachers are opened and willing to apply new student centered strategies, they are constrained by the curriculum content which is to extensive. The entire educational system is focused on teaching theoretical contents and lacks practical applications. In the work market, new graduate students’ grades are not relevant for making a selection because most of the time, the grades do not reflect their abilities.
The present study will also show the college students’ opinion about ways of solving the issue. Teachers enrolled in master courses on Educational Management were invited to conduct a research on learning time management in their schools and to identify the needed improvements of the curriculum. The conclusions will help us configure an image about what is happening in the Romanian schools and identify changes that are to be made.
We are considering that in the last years a significant progress has been made in reducing school and college curriculum, but there are still plenty of required courses that are not relevant in students’ education, or they are endowed with to many hours. The students need a lot of time for individual study which is not reflected in the credentials quantum.
A proactive thinking concerning Bologna programs is a must in order to reduce the curriculum content and the number of courses; on the other hand the individual study periods should be regarded as an important part of this process.
It is of course a field of many controversies and our university is involved as well in solving this challenge and in supporting teachers in rethinking the curriculum and the credentials system.