The number of hours teachers spend teaching each week can vary greatly depending on several factors, including the country they teach in, the grade level, whether they’re in a public or private school, and the requirements of their specific school district. However, there is some general data we can look at to get an idea.
In the United States, most full-time public school teachers are contracted to work a standard school day that lasts approximately 7-8 hours. Within this time frame, teachers are typically required to provide direct instruction for about 5 hours each day. When accounting for a 5-day workweek, this amounts to about 25 hours of direct teaching per week.
However, it’s crucial to note that teachers’ work goes far beyond those hours spent in direct instruction. Lesson planning, grading, preparing materials, collaborating with colleagues, professional development, and communicating with parents can significantly add to a teacher’s workload. This additional work often occurs outside of regular school hours and isn’t usually calculated into the ‘hours of teaching’ statistics that mainly consider face-to-face teaching time. When these hours are taken into account, many teachers report working well over 40 hours per week.
Internationally, teaching hours can differ widely. For instance, according to the OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), reported average weekly teaching times for lower secondary teachers range from about 19 hours in Kazakhstan to around 31 hours in Chile. These figures represent the time teachers are formally scheduled to be in the classroom and do not include preparation or ancillary duties.
It’s also worth considering any extracurricular activities that teachers may be involved in; things like coaching sports teams or running clubs may extend their working hours but aren’t typically included in formal teaching hour statistics.
To sum up, while on paper it might seem like teachers teach between 19-31 hours per week globally—often around 25 hours per week in countries like the US—the reality is much more complex and requires consideration of the many additional tasks that form part of a teacher’s professional life.
