The big picture: Big class size with a small class feel

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Peters ◽  
Karla Gingerich
Keyword(s):  
Class Size ◽  
Small Class ◽  
Big Picture

scholarly journals INFLUENCE OF CLASS SIZE ON STUDENTS’ AND TEACHERS’ MOTIVATION DURING INSTRUCTION

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (01) ◽  
pp. 110-119
Author(s):  
Syed Muhammad Amir ◽  
Irfan Ullah ◽  
Muhammad Kaleem
Keyword(s):  
Positive Feedback ◽  
Class Size ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Small Class ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Descriptive Research ◽  
Small Class Size ◽  
Instructional Tasks ◽  
Expected Proportion

This descriptive research investigated influence of class size on the students’ and teachers’ motivation during the instruction. The study objectives focused the effects of class size on the students’ initiation in completing instructional tasks, stimulating them in expressing the ideas freely and in provision of positive feedback to them during the instruction. Three null hypotheses were formulated to observe the significance differences between observed and expected proportion about target objectives. For this purpose, the data were collected from 4th grade students and teachers of 51 government primary schools through observation sheets and questionnaire respectively. Collected data were analysed through mean and chi-square. The major findings indicated that small class size assisted teachers as well as students to exhibit higher level of the motivation and interest during instruction. However, no significant differences noted between the observed and expected proportion about level of initiation, completion of task, rate of stimulation and provision of feedback among students belonging to different level of class size.

scholarly journals Effect of Workplace Factors in Professional Teacher Development on the Implementation of Small Class Teaching

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacky Pow ◽  
Marina Wong
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Class Size ◽  
Small Class ◽  
Workplace Factors ◽  
Teaching Professional Development ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Simple Reduction ◽  
Enhance Student Learning ◽  
Teaching Professional

It is commonly believed that small class teaching can greatly enhance student learning because the individual needs of each student can be better addressed, the students can learn more through more innovative and flexible teaching methods and the students have more time to interact with each other and to gain feedback from their teachers. Although studies have shown that students benefit from small class teaching, they have failed to identify the benefits as the natural consequences of a simple reduction in class size. As increasing numbers of researchers argue that professional development in small class teaching is more important than a simple reduction in class size, it is timely to determine the factors that affect teachers’ participation in small class teaching professional development programmes and their use of small class teaching after participation in these programmes. This study explored teachers’ concerns about or obstacles to applying their knowledge from professional development programmes to their teaching. Teachers who had participated in a government-funded professional development programme were invited to complete an end-of-programme questionnaire, and 160 valid questionnaires were collected. The initial findings indicate that workplace factors were the most common factors in the implementation of small class teaching.

scholarly journals Class Size and Students’ Anxiety in Oral Recitation

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Jerald C. Moneva ◽  
Leo B. Acibar ◽  
Leo B. Acibar ◽  
Niel O. Monding ◽  
Leo B. Acibar
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Junior High School ◽  
Class Size ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Small Class ◽  
Weighted Mean ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Small Class Size ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Gathering Data

Anxiety is one of the greatest challenges that faced by the students nowadays. Anxiety can affect the student’s productivity, performance and academic achievement in many ways. Class size plays an important role on learning of the students. Students who belong to the large or small class size can surpass this problem, it may give their co-classmate a confidence and courage in facing the anxiety they felt. This study intends to determine the association between the class size and student’s anxiety in oral recitation of Jagobiao National High School. This research work uses a descriptive design with likert’s scale questionnaire as being used for gathering data. After the data were being gathered, the data were then analyzed using weighted mean and chi-square in determining the relationship between the class size and anxiety in oral recitation. 300 randomly selected students from Jagobiao National High School- Junior High School Cebu City, Philippines were asked to participate. The result of the study indicates that the class size in Jagobiao National High School has a range of forty-six to fifty students, the result revealed that the students have anxiety in oral recitation and the students’ level of anxiety is slight to extremely anxious and it is also revealed that there is no association between class size and students’ anxiety in oral recitation

scholarly journals Contextual Categorisation of Academics’ Conceptions of Teaching

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Daniel ◽  
Alex Mazzolini ◽  
Llewellyn Mann
Keyword(s):  
Large Class ◽  
Physics Education ◽  
Class Size ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Intermediate Stage ◽  
Small Class ◽  
Conceptions Of Teaching ◽  
Large Classes

Background: Despite large-class research-based instructional strategies being firmly established in the literature, traditional teacher-centred lecturing remains the norm. This is particularly the case in physics, where Physics Education Research (PER) has blossomed as a discipline in its own right over the last few decades, but research-based strategies are not widely implemented. This variation in practice is underpinned by variations in beliefs and understandings about teaching. Studies investigating the spectrum of conceptions of teaching held by teachers and, in particular, academics have almost uniformly identified a single dimension from teacher-centred to student-centred. These studies have used a phenomenographic approach to capture the variety of conceptions of teaching, but have excluded contextual issues like class size. Research Question: How does class size affect academics’ conceptions of teaching? Method: This study used an online survey to compare and contrast respondents’ experiences of small and large classes, and in particular lectures. The survey was promoted to Australian university academics from a range of disciplines, predominantly science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Responses to the sets of small-class questions were analysed independently from the sets of equivalent large-class questions. For each respondent their small-class responses were categorised, where possible, as either being student-centred or teacher-centred, and likewise, independently, for their large-class responses. Results: In total, 107 survey responses were received. Of these, 51 had the sets of both their large- and small-class responses unambiguously categorised. Five of these were student-centred regardless of class size, and 17 of these were teacher-centred regardless of class size. All of the remaining 29 responses were teacher-centred in large classes, but student-centred in small classes. Conversely, none of the responses corresponded to a conception of teaching that was student-centred in large classes and teacher-centred in small classes. Implications: This result demonstrates that the one-dimensional analysis of conceptions of teaching along the spectrum of teacher-centred to student-centred is too simplistic. Conceptions are contextual. At the very least they depend on class size, and perhaps other factors. It confirms the hierarchy of understanding from teacher-centred to student-centred reported elsewhere in the literature, with the added feature of an intermediate stage of differing focus depending on class size. One recommendation from this finding is that teaching professional development programs should be focused on developing studentcentred conceptions and practices in large classes in particular, as this occurs infrequently but leads to the best student learning outcomes. Moreover, further research on contextspecific conceptions of teaching need to be explored.

scholarly journals The impact of varying class sizes on epidemic spread in a university population

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 210712
Author(s):  
Alex Best ◽  
Prerna Singh ◽  
Charlotte Ward ◽  
Caterina Vitale ◽  
Megan Oliver ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Class Size ◽  
Epidemiological Model ◽  
Small Class ◽  
Epidemic Spread ◽  
Large Classes ◽  
University Population ◽  
Size Limits ◽  
The Impact

A common non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) during the COVID-19 pandemic has been group size limits. Furthermore, educational settings of schools and universities have either fully closed or reduced their class sizes. As countries begin to reopen classrooms, a key question will be how large classes can be while still preventing local outbreaks of disease. Here, we develop and analyse a simple, stochastic epidemiological model where individuals (considered as students) live in fixed households and are assigned to a fixed class for daily lessons. We compare key measures of the epidemic—the peak infected, the total infected by day 180 and the calculated R 0 —as the size of class is varied. We find that class sizes of 10 could largely restrict outbreaks and often had overlapping inter-quartile ranges with our most cautious case of classes of five. However, class sizes of 30 or more often result in large epidemics. Reducing the class size from 40 to 10 can reduce R 0 by over 30%, as well as significantly reducing the numbers infected. Intermediate class sizes show considerable variation, with the total infected varying by as much as from 10% to 80% for the same class size. We show that additional in-class NPIs can limit the epidemic still further, but that reducing class sizes appears to have a larger effect on the epidemic. We do not specifically tailor our model for COVID-19, but our results stress the importance of small class sizes for preventing large outbreaks of infectious disease.

Disc explosive magnetic generator of small class size

2015 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. E. Grinevich ◽  
P. V. Duday ◽  
A. V. Ivanovsky ◽  
K. N. Klimushkin ◽  
A. I. Kraev ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Class Size ◽  
Small Class ◽  
Small Class Size ◽  
Explosive Magnetic Generator ◽  
Magnetic Generator

scholarly journals Decreased class size, increased active learning? Intended and enacted teaching strategies in smaller classes

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary C Wright ◽  
Inger Bergom ◽  
Tracy Bartholomew
Keyword(s):  
Student Performance ◽  
Teaching Strategies ◽  
Class Size ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Small Class ◽  
University Policy ◽  
Small Class Size ◽  
Professional Development Needs ◽  
Policy Shift ◽  
Quality In Higher Education

Small class size is often used as an indicator of quality in higher education, and some research suggests that instructors in smaller classes more often use activities that are learner-centered and that involve physical and mental activity on the part of learners, such as group work, simulations, and case studies. However, we have little information on how instructors change their pedagogical practice when they teach in large- versus small-class settings. In this study, we examine alignment between intended and enacted teaching strategies, or initial plans and specific ways in which instructors reported altering their teaching in the context of a university policy shift to smaller classes. Furthermore, we examine instructional challenges in this shift to call attention to professional development needs of small-class teaching and to best leverage the benefits of such activities for student performance and retention.

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