Teachers in the Netherlands tend to spend less time in front of the class, and often adopt a more personal approach. This allows them to better adjust their lecturing style to the needs of the individual student with the aim of increasing student performance. However, a more personal approach is also more time consuming and potentially reduces the complementary and scale effects of the more traditional lecture style teaching.This study examines whether the proportion of time that teachers lecture in front of the class influences the cognitive performance of students in the Netherlands. In this study we find no relationship between the proportion of time spent lecturing in front of the class and student performance.