


































Frontiers of Contemporary Education 
ISSN 2690-3520 (Print) ISSN 2690-3539 (Online) 

Vol. 1, No. 1, 2020 

www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/fce 

46 
 

Original Paper 

Impact of In-class Breaks on Students’ Revitalization: An 

Observational Study in China and Bangladesh 

Md Sajjad Hosain
1 

1
 Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China 

 

Received: June 8, 2020         Accepted: June 15, 2020       Online Published: June 18, 2020 

doi:10.22158/fce.v1n1p46             URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/fce.v1n1p46 

 

Abstract 

Students are the receiver and the teachers are the providers of information at a classroom. The 

exchange of information is conducted mainly through delivering lectures although there are several 

other ways to do that. Generally in a longer class duration (more than 1 hour), breaks are quite 

essential for the students as well as for the lecturer to get revitalized. This study aims at examining the 

impact of in-class breaks on revitalizing or energizing the students in order to focus on the lectures 

effectively. The investigation was conducted on 527 Bachelor and Master students of three universities 

in China and three universities in Bangladesh on a random sampling basis. Those students participated 

at two different classes: one with frequent short breaks and other one with two long breaks where they 

were being observed. The results indicate that frequent short breaks can revitalize the students more 

than fewer long breaks. Further, it was revealed that the Chinese students were more punctual and 

efficient in time management than the Bangladeshi students. The author hopes that this study will be 

inductive to the university lecturers as well as educational policymakers for putting more motivational 

focus for students in order to make the lectures enjoyable and effective.  

Keywords 

in-class breaks, lecture, revitalization, university, undergrad & master student 

 

1. Introduction 

Among all the jobs we do in our everyday lives, the most preferred word is having a “break” 

particularly if the job is longer in duration and requires utmost attention. As a matter of fact, whether or 

not we like coffee or tea, we always look forward to coffee/tea breaks. Any action, irrespective whether 

it is physically or psychologically fatiguing, turns out to be boring after a while; and a small break 

serves to revitalize an individual and regenerate attention. In this regard, a classroom or a lecture hall is 

not a different place, where people often deliver or listen lectures lasting from slightly less than an hour 



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(e.g., 45 minutes) to 3 hours in duration. Therefore, a student has to spend most of his/her time at 

educational campus (schools, colleges, universities). Considering that a university student has 3 to 6 

credits to attend a class in a day, he/she may have to sit in a lecture room/class from 6 to 9 hours in 

average.  

It is imperative to admit that the main purpose of a good lecture is to deliver a proper and timely 

transmission of information from sender (the lecturer) to receiver (the students). In this regard, proper 

attention from the receivers is of paramount significance. To receive the appropriate attention from the 

students, a lecturer needs not only to make the lecture interesting and deliver it in a unique, interesting 

manner, but also the in-class “break management” needs to be formulated and implanted prior to and 

during class. In fact, breaks are effective methods to allow the level of attention to recover (Bonwell & 

Eison, 1991). Creating diversity and relief during the lecture is significantly vital to preserve audience 

attention (Mambert, 1976) and enhance learning capabilities (Milford, 1984). Eble (1976) 

recommended that providing recurrent breathing spaces increase students’ freshness and revitalization 

to ask questions. He further suggested that physical movement, use of the boards/power point slides, 

audience participation and any other possible method for breaking up single presentation modes are 

efficient strategies to attract students’ attention. Mambert (1976) warned that the standard audience is 

allured to sleep by a kind of monotonous repetitiveness whereas Miller (1981) agreed that only a few 

professors/lecturers are capable of presenting inspiring, motivating and attention-drawing lectures 

(Anderson & Harrison, 1985). 

However, although there is no disagreement among the educational scholars or leaders that in-class 

breaks are imperative, there is very few research evidences about the duration and number of breaks in 

a university standard class lecture (2 hours or more). Considering such research gaps in recent 

academic platform, this empirical paper has been carried out to investigate the role of in-class breaks 

(both long and short) on student revitalization (revival of interest/attention). Therefore, the following 

research questions can be put forward for this empirical study: 

RQ 1: What is the role of in-class breaks to revitalize students? 

RQ2: What should be the optimum frequency and duration of in-class breaks? 

 

2. Literature Review 

In university level education system in a number of countries, the most conventional and still widely 

used method is class lecture. Particularly, in case of humanities and social science schools, in-class 

lecture method is the only option with a few exceptions (case study, project tour, industrial visit, etc.). 

A lecture is a two way communication of information involving two counterparts: sender or deliverer 

(lecturer) and the receivers (students). Two way communications in this regard indicate the 

communication or exchange of information must not only come from one side but it should be a normal 

flow from both sides (lecturer and students). Such lectures vary in duration from minimum 45 minutes 

to 180 minutes depending on the course credits. For due reason, in order to get adequate attention from 



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the students and to make the information exchange effective, a lecturer must make his/her lecture 

contents in an attractive, presentable and enjoyable manner for average students especially in longer 

duration classes. 

The most significant requirement of a proper in-class exchange of information is the due attention of 

the receivers, the students. However, in this regard, there are in general, three broad sets of factors can 

influence such required attention. The broad sets or categories indicate three aspects: The deliverer, the 

students and finally, the atmosphere or classroom environment. Table 1 indicates the factors that 

influence students’ attention corresponding to three categories mentioned. 

 

Table 1. Factors That Influence in Getting Proper Attention at a Class 

Factor category Job role Factors required 

The lecture deliverer The lecturer 

Charismatic personality, presentation style, voice, 

eye contact, student involvement & number of 

breaks 

The receivers The students 
Adaptation, patience, personality, number of 

breaks & subject interest 

Atmosphere or 

classroom 

environment 

Institutional 

authority 

Technical facilities such as noise-free 

environment, size of lecture hall, multimedia & 

other facilities related to IT 

Source: Author’s elaboration. 

 

However, the scope of this paper is limited to the role of breaks during a class in order to revitalize the 

students and get appropriate attention of the pupils. An important question might be asked in this case 

such as how long an average student can typically pay his/her attention to a lecture? There are several 

answers to this. According to Johnstone & Percival (1976), as expressed in their famous article 

“Attention Breaks in Lectures”, published in the journal “Education in Chemistry” students with 

average memory typically can pay attention to a 10 to 20 minute span of lectures while Eastwood et al. 

(2012) argued that if such paid attention is insufficient, encoding and recalling of information are 

adversely affected and learning becomes stalled. Furthermore, the lecturers or university teachers 

having already loaded with multiple classes need some shorter refreshments in order to energize and 

revitalize themselves (Hosain, 2016). 

Therefore, in-class breaks are quite essential in order to revitalize the students from boredom, 

monotony and variation. The question arises what should be the frequency and duration of in-class 

breaks in a normal class duration, such as 1 hour. Previous findings suggested that shorter, more 

frequent in-class breaks are more helpful than those of fewer and longer breaks (Anderson & Harrison, 

1985; Bunce et al., 2010; Balbis, 2017). The obvious reasons for preferring shorter breaks pointed in 



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their studies were that the shorter breaks are conductive for a quick remembering the lecture contents as 

well as reducing the boredom. 

Considering that most of the Bachelor and Master classes have the normal duration of more than 60 

minutes with 3 classes a day, it is quite necessary to retain the attention of students so that they do not 

leave the classes or go to sleep. In such a case, they might miss out the most important parts of the 

lectures. As a result, it can be useless to attend the classes if they cannot get the real content and grab it 

into their brain. Although an in-class break is quite an important factor for a proper class management, 

research evidence focusing on this issue is quite uncommon and rare. This observational study has 

intended to discover the effects of number and frequency of breaks on Bachelor and Master students in 

two countries, China and Bangladesh. 

 

3. Research Methods 

As mentioned earlier in this paper, the author selected two countries (China and Bangladesh) to 

conduct this study. For due purpose, six universities have been pre-selected as the research premise. 

Total six classes of six universities have been taken as the sample classes having three hours duration. 

Out of those six classes, four classes were for Bachelor students and two classes were for Master 

students. The participants (students) have been kept uninformed regarding the real purpose of the study. 

Altogether 527 Bachelor and Master level students participated in this study. 

The same lecturers took each class two times. During the first time, the lecturers gave two longer 

breaks for each class having a duration of 15 minutes each. At the second stage, the same lecturers 

delivered lectures to the same students. During that time, they (the lecturers) gave 6 breaks each having 

7 minutes. After all the classes, the students’ attention and revitalization were observed. Such attention 

and revitalization were considered based on three factors: questions asked by the students, eye contact 

and listening patience. The whole class period of all the six classes were observed by the author 

including the break time. At the end of the classes, the author conducted an informal interview with the 

students as a whole. 

 

4. Research Findings 

According to the author’s observation based on those three factors mentioned in previous section, it 

was revealed that frequent short breaks can revitalize and hold the students’ attention than fewer long 

breaks. Such results are mostly supportive the previous findings regarding in-class breaks. The students 

also supported their views in favor of shorter and more breaks when they talked to the author after class 

periods. They argued that frequent short breaks are conductive for quicker revitalization and 

remembering the lecture contents as they can take a cup of coffee, tea or cigarette. Further, the lecturer 

can talk to the students informally and record the quick feedback grading of the students who 

performed well during the class period. As a whole, both of the two very important parties (lecturer and 

students) were in favor of frequent short breaks than fewer long breaks. 



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If we consider the countrywide difference between the results in China and Bangladesh, the study 

observed that the Chinese students are more interested in frequent short breaks than those of 

Bangladeshi students. Further, the Chinese students came back to the classes timely after break whereas 

the Bangladeshi students came back a little bit late. Therefore, the Chinese students are more punctual 

and efficient in time management than the Bangladeshi students participated in this study. 

 

5. Action Recommendations 

Based on the findings of this observational study, the author would like to provide a few action 

recommendations in order to make a longer class more effective regarding break management. The 

lecturers and educational policymakers can benefit from such suggestions. 

- A one hour class can be divided into two breaks having 7 to 8 minutes each whereas a three hour 

class can be divided into 6 breaks having the same duration of each break (7 to 8 munities). 

- After every break, the lecturer can ask the students regarding the lecture contents in order to 

check if they can remember the previous topics. 

- No personal breaks for going to toilet or having coffee should be allowed unless there is an 

emergency. 

- Immediately after each in-class break, quick quiz or group cases can be conducted to check the 

overall class performance. 

 

6. Rationale and Significance 

The study topic is based on the impact of in-class lecture breaks on revitalizing the students. Such a 

purpose is quite uncommon so far in academia and educational management. The study can aid in 

reducing the gap in literature to a large extent as far as the author is concerned. Further, the educational 

policymakers can also take the help from the results and recommendations provided in order to 

formulate and implement a proper break management policy for their educational institutions. The 

author expects that further research can be conducted based on this observational study as a guideline 

and pioneering effort. 

 

7. Limitations and Further Study 

Although pointing to a significant issue, the study is limited to a confined area based on only two 

countries. Further, the study is based on a kind of qualitative nature rather than an extensive 

questionnaire survey. Such limitations are small but obvious from the points of study nature. 

The author is hopeful that further efforts can be initiated taking into consideration of such limitations 

by the researchers devoted to educational management.  

 

 

 



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8. Concluding Remarks 

The advice to teachers based upon the observational proof of this study is that students do not or cannot 

pay their undivided concentration constantly during a longer lecture period. Therefore, the 

lecturers/teachers should be conscious of students’ attention cycles within a lecture period and 

endeavor to pick up student concentration using student-oriented pedagogies at diverse times all the 

way through a lecture, not merely to reduce students’ attention gapes but also to amplify their 

concentration for the duration of the lectures that go after the utilization of such pedagogies. This 

research shows that the constructive outcome of student-oriented pedagogies acts not only to reduce 

student inattentiveness during class periods but also has the additional advantage of an adjourned 

consequence to a consequent lecture segment. Such results supports the idea of altering conventional 

break management within a class period cannot simply be considered as a method to present new 

concepts in an alternate arrangement but might also assist in connecting students in succeeding 

teaching formats. 

As an obvious true fact, it cannot be denied that the in-class breaks are not only quite essential but also 

an integrated part of proper class management particularly if the total class duration is more than 60 

minutes. Lecture breaks can serve up to invigorate, arouse attention and pick up attentiveness during 

classroom presentations. Participants/students admit that in-class breaks help to resolve the problems of 

boredom, noise, and extreme material exposure. Almost all the parties involved in classroom 

management believe that in-class breaks can aid in improved learning, rather than wasting valuable 

class time.  

Many actions are promising, in addition to providing desired diversity and liberation. This study 

suggests that it is an important task to plan a successful in-class lecture break during a generally 

scheduled class lecture since it is equally important as to prepare the lecture itself. 

 

References 

Anderson, W. A., & Harrison, B. (1985). Lecture break. Journal of Agronomic Education, 10(2), 

105-108. https://doi.org/10.2134/jae1985.0105 

Balbis, L. (2017). Effect of Lecture Breaks on Students’ Attention. The First Symposium on Teaching 

Transformation through Action Research: University of Bahrain, April 3, 2017. 

Bonwell, C. C., & Eison, J. A. (1991). Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom. In 

ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 1. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.  

Bunce, D. M., Flens, E. A., & Neiles, K. Y. (2010). How long can students pay attention in class? A 

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1438-1443. https://doi.org/10.1021/ed100409p 

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Eble, K. E. (1976). The Craft of Teaching. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, California. 

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