The excellent Larry Ferlazzo recently put me onto an article that appeared on USA Today about relative class size having little actual impact on student outcomes.
In tweeting it, Larry commented "Have these guys ever taught in a classroom?" and I'm sure many of us can see his point.
Personally, I find myself both agreeing and disagreeing with the central points made in that USA Today article.
The idea of "student outcomes" is never properly defined or demonstrated in the article, and I am left with the assumption that the "academic achievement" referred to is based wholly on standardised tests. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking such tests are hardly a reliable or descriptive account of "student outcomes."
Likewise, the "research" referred to is not documented or described.
But one point raised in the article is very true: the rush to reduce teacher-student ratios generally results in less qualified and experienced teachers being brought in en masse. Parents in particular automatically assume things have already improved, when one really ought to doubt that reducing a class of 30 with a very reliable teacher to a class of 20 with a "blow in" teacher is going to result in better student outcomes.
Having personally taught both small classes (of around a dozen students) and much larger classes (of up to 40), as well as doing extensive observation of other teachers in both situations, I've generally noticed that the following types of teaching behaviour tend to emerge for the larger classes:
1. The teacher goes about his/her business as usual, but with a somewhat defeatist attitude ("I'm doing my best, but it's not my fault the learners aren't progressing - it's clearly because the class is just too large for any teacher to reasonably handle.")
2. The teacher tries to apply a small class approach to the larger class, trying to dedicate the same amount of 1-1 time to each student. Some of these teachers manage it and become super heroes of the profession (albeit with very little in the way of a personal/social life!). Most just end up completely burned out and frustrated, and often highly critical of themselves ("I'm not doing a good job; I have to work harder").
3. The teacher changes his/her fundamental approach and becomes much more of a "facilitator" - with the classroom emphasis being on independent proactive development and collaborative learning. (Such teachers often take an attitude of "I'm not here to spoon-feed each learner 1-1; I'm here to guide and create an overall environment within which learners develop the capacity to learn more on their own and with/from the collaborative environment itself.")
I've been through (and observed) all three of those stages to a greater or lesser extent, and my honest opinion is that the larger classes have worked out a whole lot better - once the teacher can work him/herself into the third mindset described above.
Freed from the expectation of extensive 1-1 coaching, I've found the most spectacular growth in collaborative learning and self-confidence is actually facilitated by the larger class size. The social aspect of learning is also greatly enhanced, with the learners having chances to meet and learn from/with a greater range of people. The emphasis on "learning" over "teaching" is a natural and irresistable one in such an environment.
And, interestingly, there is also suddenly greater scope to dedicate a little more 1-1 attention to the struggling students who need it (and who don't need for this attention to be starkly obvious in a small group learning setting), but also create avenues for them to get the additional help they need from other students as well.
In one memorable example for me personally, I noticed that an academic writing class of 30 students made more progress (not just in actual grades, but in outlook, breadth of experience, and self-belief) in the course of a term than another class with only 12 students. I really do believe the process of "unhooking" both learners and teacher from the expectation of a highly teacher-led approach made a lot of difference. That "unhooking" was much harder to achieve in the smaller class, where students were automatically expecting a certain increase in 1-1 attention from the teacher, and the teacher himself (myself) felt pressured (probably more from the institutional context) to cater to that expectation.
But this idea of crunching the numbers is possibly an inappropriate distraction from what I consider to be much more important issues.
The quality and mindset of a teacher, and a clearer understanding of what "student outcomes" should actually mean and encompass - those are at the heart of better education.
On a related aside, if 135,000 teachers recently lost their jobs in the US, then that IS a terrible thing. But if - among that 135,000 - even just one of them was (or was well on the way to becoming) a really great educator, then that is an absolute catastrophe.
:-)
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