“Does Class Size Matter?” is a nice review of research on the topic by Abner Oakes.
I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About How Class Size Does Matter.
Thanks to K.D. Washburn for the tip.
“Does Class Size Matter?” is a nice review of research on the topic by Abner Oakes.
I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About How Class Size Does Matter.
Thanks to K.D. Washburn for the tip.
Hi Larry,
Being a teacher myself, I most wholeheartedly agree that smaller class sizes help. Just getting around to those extra kids takes time, and teachers are decidedly time-poor.
John Hattie, in his book “Visible Learning”, a culmination of over 800 meta-analyses (or something like that), found that class sizes did not matter so much as other things, say, formative assessment, for example.
What was even more important, or effective, was the quality of the teacher. For example, a good quality teacher with 35 kids would be preferable to a poor quality teacher with 15 kids.
Then we get into the difficult area of “weeding out” poor quality teachers. What we can do, though, is try to make every teacher a quality teacher by supporting them, and providing constant professional learning opportunities.
Furthermore, keeping class sizes low is an expensive habit, especially compared with formative assessment, and even maintaining teacher quality.
Just my two cents!