Boston Children's Hospital neuroscientist Frances Jensen and neurologist David Urion claim research shows that the natural shifting of sleep cycles plays a crucial role in determining adolescents' optimal learning times. Using a rotating schedule means that, for at least some of the school year, students are attending each class at the most ideal time for them. If a struggling math student has geometry class first period and is not a morning person, this will only affect them when their first-period class is held at the beginning of the day.
Students and teachers can quickly become bored following the exact same schedule of classes every single day. Although in some rotating schedules, students still attend all classes each day, a simple change of pace, such as attending classes at different times and starting and ending each day differently, makes the day seem more exciting and less mundane. Students at middle school campuses in Brookfield, Ridgefield and Newtown, Conn., reported that they preferred the shifting nature of a rotating schedule over a traditional one.
Some schools use rotation in combination with other flexible scheduling methods. One way to do this is to make some classes of the day longer than the others. For example, schools could implement a rotating schedule by building in one or more flexible, larger blocks of time. The day could begin with an hourlong class, followed by two 45-minute classes, another hourlong class, then two more 45-minute periods. This gives teachers more flexibility on planning lessons, as well as a chance to give assessments or plan activities, such as science experiments, that may require more than just a standard class period.
For some students, being habitually late or missing their first class is a reality. Some students might be responsible for getting themselves up in the morning and catching the bus, while others may rely on siblings or parents for a ride to school that may not always arrive on time. Although a rotating schedule is not a fix-all for absenteeism, it would, at least, spread out absences among all classes, ensuring that hitting snooze on that alarm clock one more time does not always mean missing math class.