A CASE FOR SMALLER CLASSES
Why would smaller class sizes increase student performance?This video is from last Friday when 10 students were away... leaving only 18 students in the class. It was quite a unique situation - 5 boys were away at a rugby tournament and the rest were away for medical reason. From the start of the day the class was immediately settled and engaged, working on items from their tasklist. The loudest noise was the Relish the rainbow lorikeet in the cloakroom.
I was so taken with the difference in the class I videoed the children at work - as evidence of how smaller class sizes may benefit children's learning. What was even more powerful was the feedback from the students themselves. My questions was, "Who thinks that with today's quieter classroom you were better able to learn?" Every hand went up!
While this is not definitive proof of the effects of smaller classes it does lend strong support to that notion.
While the children worked I marked and checked the handed in work from my "Checking Box", and marked off completed tasks. I was able to call students up individually to go through their work and give feedback and next steps to help them further develop their learning.
In the ideal world the daily experience in the classroom - it would be the norm for the class and the ease of interaction with the class would mean greater levels of achievement for all students, and less stress for teaching staff..
Dear Mr C
ReplyDeleteI read your blog with interest as YES I do believe that smaller class sizes would provide the advantages to the children's learning that you observed
However could I observe from the post that the different class dynamics could be due to the absence of particular individuals and therefore how would the dynamics change if one, two or five of these pupils were present in class with the loss of the equivalent number of those that were observed.
An interesting opportunity for an experiment along those lines??
Regards
You make a valid point. It is also true that teachers in public schools don't get to choose who will be in their school or class. As professionals we have to deal with whatever and whoever arrives .... and this is a challenging situation that is harder some years than others. Societal change is evident from my nearly four decades of teaching - and there are times that educators have to contend with VERY difficult situations. It was recently noted in the media that increasingly violent and disruptive children are arriving at school and teachers are having to work to socialise them sufficiently for them to remain in the education system. Societal stresses are making teaching an even more demanding and wearying job and this is leading to a number of my colleagues choosing to leave teaching to look for something else. However, on the bright side, it is highly rewarding when you manage to get a child reintegrated into education and hopefully they will succeed later in live rather than becoming another statistic.
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