Melbourne University Professor of Education Pasi Sahlberg says Australia children have about 11,000 hours of instruction under their belts by the time they are 15.
"In Finland, where I came from to Australia five years ago, it's about 6,300 hours," Professor Sahlberg told Nadia Mitsopoulos on ABC Radio Perth.
"It's a huge difference. It equals to about five years' worth of schooling in favour of Australian kids."
He said Australian children spent more hours at school doing formal instruction than any other in the world.
Professor Sahlberg, who is a former teacher and director-general of education in Finland, now advises governments around the world on how to improve education delivery.
More play, less desk time
He said children would benefit from less formal instruction and more time for play and physical activity during school hours.
He said studies had shown no correlation between formal learning and time and education outcomes.
"If we are precise with this, the correlation is slightly negative, which is an intriguing conclusion — the longer we try to teach our kids, the less they learn."
He said the balance in Australia wasn't quite right.
"There's no best system, but I think that there could be a better balance between how much we expect them to sit in the classrooms or attend formal classes and how much we give them time for physical activity and play and other things in schools," he said.
"I have experienced it myself with our own children who started to go to school here in Australia.
"There's a big difference in a way that they experience school, often saying that they are tired and there's too much stuff and too little play. I think this is one of those one of those lessons that Australian schools could look at from other countries."
Fit balls versus chairs
There was also evidence that kids enjoyed getting away from a desk, even for formal learning.
A three-year study of school students in WA's south west, led by researchers at Edith Cowan University, found a direct link between classroom furniture and learning.
The study gave students in year 2 and year 4 a chance to choose fit balls, ottomans, tall tables and office chairs with wheels.
It found 97 per cent of students felt flexible furniture was positive for learning.
"At the moment, in our data, we're finding that students actually really like office chairs, that ability to wheel around and have some back support," lead researcher Julia Morris told Sam Longley on ABC Radio Perth.
"Children as young as year 3 can identify that they'd like some back support.
"But they also like to be able to pick up ottomans and carry them around the classroom and have a whole range of things that they might be able to access that's within their reach within the classroom walls."
Dr Morris said 25 per cent of schools already used flexible furniture and intuitively felt it was beneficial, but until now didn't have any research to back it up.
She said students who were surveyed felt it had a tangible link to their learning.
"Things like assisting their concentration, helping them to focus better, helping them to manage injuries," she said.
"It also helped those 21st century learning skills that we want to see: collaboration, connecting with their peers, thinking critically. They all found that these things were benefits of using the flexible furniture in their classrooms."
Senior school focus
Professor Sahlberg said Australia's heavy educational focus on ATAR and university entrance for older students was also denying many the opportunity to thrive.
"We have [a] very weak or underdeveloped vocational secondary education sector here compared to most other countries around the world," he said.
"Not all of our high school students want to go to university and they would probably benefit from more vocational or technical education in high school.
"In the Nordic countries we have a situation where roughly half of our senior high school students in grades 10, 11 and 12 attend vocational schools that are not preparing them for academic universities.
"They get the occupational training that allows them to go and start to work if that's what they want to do."
