A Tale Too Often Heard: The Adequacy of a Process-Product Conception of
Time-on-Task in Classroom Research

At the 1984 AARE Conference, the keynote address provided a summary review of the successful uptake of the concept time-on- task (and its phenotypes) and suggested, without explanation, a redirection or 'new paradigm' in classroom research. This paper critiques the time-on-task concept as it is conceived within process-product research perspectives and as it applies to the establishment of pupil attention at the beginning of a school year. Several arguments are proposed to show that such a redirection may not be only a question of the appropriateness of research ideology but of the adequacy of the concept itself in providing best explanations of classroom practice.