CESTL paper-Class Size & Learning

Understanding the Impact of Class Size on Learning at High School

Emily Fierros

EDCI 6304 Learning & Cognition

Spring 2008

School of Education
University of Texas at Brownsville

This Paper was presented at the 2nd Conference of Elementary Secondary Teaching & Learning (CESTL) in April, 2008, Brownsville, Texas. If you have any questions or comments regarding this paper, please contact the authort directly at emily.fierros@utb.edu.

Introduction

Learning is a complex process that involves not just memorizing facts but applying these concepts into real life situations. There is a debate among politicians, teachers, parents and students on how to create a learning environment where all students can fulfill their maximum potential (Wyss, 2007). One issue that is considered controversial is how big a class size should be in order to maximize learning.

St. Joseph Academy has recently had an increase in the enrollment in the past 8 years. Many factors that have resulted in the population growth including the implementation of the learning center and offering financial assistance to low income families. Because of these new policies, class sizes have been more than doubled, which has caused some stress on both the teachers and parents. In fact, many parents have complained that their children are not receiving one-on-one attention and they believe this has resulted in an overall increase of students’ failing a class.

This study will address this increased class size phenomenon at St. Joseph Academy with the purpose to find out what impact does class size and seating have on students’ learning.

Literature Review

Class size is the total number of students in a classroom in which the teacher is in charge of (Achilles, 2002). Numerous studies have shown that students in smaller classes tend to have less discipline problems, spend more time engaging in learning tasks, receive more teacher attention, and be more active participating in the class (Deutsch, 2003).

Also, teachers were found to interact more with students in a class where the class size was less than twenty students, more questions were asked, and a closer relationship with students was developed (Achilles, 2003). Studies show that secondary math teachers in smaller classes spend most of their time reviewing material previously covered in class (Pong, 2001). Other studies show that smaller classes have positive benefits to low income families and minorities by having a lower grade retention rate and less discipline problems (Achilles, 2002). On the contrary, class sizes larger than thirty tended to be more dominated by lectures and were less likely to engage students in group work compared to classes smaller than ten. Also, peer tutoring was more frequently observed in smaller classes (Wyss, 2007).

Interestingly, international studies on class size have revealed that the benefits of smaller class size are not universal across all different countries. Pong’s study (2002) tried to find out if correlation existed between curriculum and instruction and class size. The countries that participated in this study were Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Canada, United States, Singapore, France and Korea. According to this study, Asian countries have larger class sizes than United Sates schools but receive higher scores on international achievement tests in math. Korea had the largest eight grade class size because it had an average of fifty students in the class room while Hong Kong had an average of thirty five students. Countries of Australia, Germany, France and Hong Kong had higher achievement on these tests even though these students were in larger class size (Pong, 2002). For example, Hong Kong schools implement lecture instead of teaching in small group instructions to groups of students in classes of forty students or more out perform small classes of less than thirty. In Hong Kong the smaller math classes are remedial math classes. The only country that had a class size lower than twenty was Iceland.

However, research does show that small classes do benefit students in the United States (Pong, 2002). In fact, classes with less than twenty students perform better on the international achievement test than large class sizes (e.g., more than thirty students). Research shows that students who were distracted need smaller classes where teacher spend more time given them more attention and receive more help from their instructor (Deutsch, 2003).

Methodology

Research Question

This qualitative study focuses on the overall learning and environment in a classroom. The purpose of this study was to see whether the learning environment impairs students learning in relations to class size and seating arrangements especially whether class size and seating affects students learning. Specifically, this research intends to explore this question: How does the class size and seating affect student learning at the high school level?

My hypothesis of this question is that students enrolled in a smaller-size should have more productive environment than those in a larger-size class. Students from a smaller-size should have more individualized attention and have a higher percentage of passing rates on tests. Students in a smaller-size should be better disciplined, less likely to be off task and have more classroom participation.

Research Site

The site where the study was conducted was at St. Joseph Academy in Brownsville, TX. St. Joseph Academy was a Marist Catholic private school with a school population of eight hundred sixty four students. The demographics of the school were mostly Hispanic students with a large percentage of students living in the border town of Matamoros. A first and seventh period pre-calculus classroom was observed once a week (thirty minutes each week) during a period of six weeks. The class size of first period had sixteen students; and fifth period had thirty-seven students. Students enrolled in this course were juniors and seniors. The ages of these students were between sixteen to eighteen years old.

Data Collection

Field observations notes were kept in order to record observations during first and seventh period. The observation focused on the physical setting of the classroom and how students interact with their teacher. In addition, two interviews were conducted on a pre-calculus teacher and an English teacher from Saint Joseph Academy to see if the classroom environment impaired student’s ability to learn in relations to class size and seating arrangements. There were two parts of this interview that included fifteen questions about class size and while part two was concerned about seating. (See Appendix for full transcript of interviews)

To further discover if class size and seating affects learning, the program Edline was used to find out students grades in two tests taken during the third quarter. Edline is a program used by parents, teachers and students to check grades, homework and lesson plans. The test scores of first and seventh period were averaged and recorded on a chart for analysis. (See Table 3)

Findings

Finding I: Benefits of smaller class size

This study found that smaller class size had fewer distractions and more on-task behaviors. For instance, the first period is less crowded with only sixteen students who were spread out through out the room and they have more personal space available to them. Mrs. Clark and Mr. Harris stated that in smaller classes, they had more time to answer questions from students which helps support the hypothesis that smaller classes provide more individualize attention to students. According to Mr. Harris, students receive more assistance from their teacher because he has the time to get to know them in a more personal basis. In other words, students who struggle academically benefit from small classes because studies show that teachers spend more time working directly with students.

The teacher interview which I had with the two teachers also supported the statement that class size affects students on-task behavior. For example, Mrs. Clark reported no discipline problems (e.g., disruption) from students but felt that her larger class size had students who would look out the window. In contrast, Mr. Harris stated that he had more instances of discipline problems in his larger classes because more office referrals were issued to students in the large class.

Finally, I also found that students in small class size did perform better academically than students in larger class size. The average grade on two different exams from first an seventh period was analyzed. The mean was taken from both class periods to find out if class size affects grade performance on assessments (See Table 3). The 1st period had a class size of less than twenty scored higher on this assessment than seventh period. The class average for test number one was 87.6 while 7th period average was 79.4. For the second exam 1st period had an average of 87.2 while 7th period score was 73.8.

Finding II: Problems of Large-size Classes

This study found that class size and seating arrangement does affect students’ learning in terms of student-teacher interactions. When the seating is not well arranged, it can affect the teacher to reach the students in an effective way. For example, I observed that students in both the first and seventh period were seated in rows. There were forty desks total in the room and they were divided into seven rows very close to one another. (See Diagram 1) This made it very difficult for Mrs. Clarks, the instructor for the seventh period class, to move through the rows because of students’ backpacks block the passageways.

The seventh period class was much larger (thirty-four students) and had more cases of off-task behavior. Through the class observation, I found that the seventh period had higher instances of students who were distracted in comparison to first period. For example I noticed that Juan, a special education student who was seated in the first desk in the sixth row, constantly displayed off- task behaviors. Some of the behaviors he displayed were constant movement of his head, staring at the wall, moving of his feet around, and would turn around every time the door would open. When other students would get up to sharpen their pencils, he would stare at them. His behavior would cease only when his teacher was close to him. He would raise his hand and say, “I do not understand.”

Two other students observed having off-task behavior from seventh period were Carlos and Adam. These two students did not take any notes down. Carlos, who is seated in the first row near the door, would spend most of lecture time staring out the window as other students passed by the classroom. He never took out his calculator and would whisper to his neighbors. Adam who was seated in the fifth row would stare at the white board and not take notes. One time Mrs. Clark noticed that he was off task and asked him, “What is the solution to this problem?” He lifted his head from the desk and started to write notes down.

A second problem with the large class size is that the teachers were unable to provide individual attention and instructions. Both of the teachers interviewed agreed that in classes of more than thirty students, they did not have the time to provide individualized attention to students who struggle academically. Mrs. Clark stated, “Most of those kids need more attention. I have one student who is constantly moving around in his desk and makes strange faces.” Mr. Harris believed that English language learners would benefit more from individualize attention. Furthermore, Mr. Harris advocated that smaller classes have a lower noise level and have fewer interruptions. He feels that a teacher gets to know the students better.

It was quite evident that the large class size did affected certain students. For example, during the classroom observation Juan displayed some odd behaviors. He would stare excessively at the wall, play with his pencil and be constantly moved in his seat. For instance, when Mrs. Clarks moved the podium closer to him he ceased moving around his desk and started to copy notes down.

Lastly, students in large class size tended to perform more poorly than students in smaller-size class. For example, in Mrs. Clarks’ class, her students had an overall lower average on tests because seventh period made 8.2 points lower than first period on test number one. In fact, there was a greater difference between the test scores of the second exam between the smaller class size and larger class size of a 13.4 difference.

Finding III: Teacher awareness of class size and learning

However, although my observation showed evidence that class size and seating does affect students’ learning. I was surprised to find out that the teacher did not seem to be aware of this importance. For example, during my interview with Mrs. Clarks, she told me that she did not believe that class size was related to student achievement and she said:

“I do not entirely agree with this statement because student achievement depends on their motivation level. I notice that on both my small and large classes I have student who really do not seem to care about their grades.” (Interview, Mrs. Clark, March 2, 2008).

Also, regarding teaching method, both educators did not differentiate their class instruction for the different class sizes because they used the same method for both small and larger classes. When asked this question, Mr. Harris responded that his teaching method was not influenced by the class size and he said, “No, I lecture and we have whole group discussions in all of my classes.”

When asked how the seating should be arranged to ensure better learning, Mrs. Clark and Mr. Harris both believed that traditional rows prevent students from talking and were least likely to go off task. Mrs. Clark stated, “A few years ago I tried group seating but it did not function quite well. Students were constantly talking to one another and copying their neighbor’s answers.” When she switched back to rows, talking level decreased. Mrs. Clarks believed that seating behavior problem students at the front helps keep a better eye on them. One problem she found is that she often has to change the better behaved students and some complain that they can not see the board.

Conclusion

This study supported my hypothesis that smaller class size has fewer distraction and the students there received more one-on-one attention from the instructor. Furthermore, smaller size classes result in better learning due to less discipline problems, fewer interruptions, students ask more questions and they develop a closer relationship with their teacher. Some advice for teachers is that they need to lecture less by incorporating cooperative groups. Furthermore, seats need to be arranged to reduce distractions. Teachers must provide individualize assistance and attention to students in their classroom.

Limitations

First of all, this study had a small sample size due to the limited amount of time. More observations of different classes were needed to give a more accurate representation of the data and students should have been surveyed to obtain their perspective of class size. Teachers from both private and public schools should have been interviewed.

Application

According to the findings collected of this study, schools should make sure the class sizes are not too big. 15-20 students in a class will be ideal and a class should have no more than 30 students in a class. Also, teachers should get to know the students’ strengths and weaknesses and use some strategies to assist the students’ learning. Teachers should also provide more individual attention to students who were at risk for failing, English language learners and special education students because these students can benefit from individualized attention from the teachers develop a closer relationship. Lastly, establishing a positive and close relationship with the students can also play a very important role in students’ learning. This relationship can sometimes determine if the students will have academic success or failure.

References

Achilles, C.M., Finn, J.D., & Bain, H. (2002). Measuring class size: Let me count the ways.
Educational Leadership, 69, 6-24.

Deutsch, F.M (2003). How small classes benefit high school students. NASSP Bulletin, 87, 35- 44.

Pong, S.L., & Pallas, C. (2001). Class-size and eight grade math achievement in the United
States and abroad. Educational Evaluation & Policy Analysis, 3, 251-73.

Wyss, V.L.,Tai, R.H., & Sadler, P. (2007). High school class size and college performance in science. High School Journal, 90.

Appendix

Diagram 1:Mrs. Clarks class room


Table 1- Demographic chart for Seventh Period

Total Students
34
Boys
13
Girls
21
Learning Center Students
8
Hispanics
33
Caucasians
1
Absent
0

Table 2- Demographic Chart for First Period

Total Students
16
Boys
10
Girls
6
Learning Center Students
1
Hispanics
16
Caucasians
0
Absent
0


Table 3-Class average of Small and Large Class Size Test Scores

Assessments
1st Period
(n=16)
7th Period
(n=34)
Test # 1
87.6
79.4
Test # 2
87.2
73.8


Interview Questions
(Typed Transcript)

Mrs. Clark

Research Question: How does the class size and seating affect student learning?

Part I (Class Size)

1. How many years have you been teaching?

I have been teaching here at Saint Joseph Academy for fifteen years. Right now I am a bit stressed because I am working on my doctorate. I am writing my dissertation right now and that is taking most of my free time.

2. Do you have more or fewer students in your class this year?

For the past few years the class sizes of my classroom have increased. Right now I have two more students than I did last year.

3. What is you largest class this year?

My fifth period has 36 students and my seventh period has 34.

4. What is your smallest class size this year?

My first period is my smallest class because I have 16 students.

5. In your opinion how many students should be in your class? Why?

I am comfortable with my class size but I do feel I need a bit more space to accommodate them. Sometimes I have a hard time going through the rows because I am afraid I can trip on backpacks that were lying around.

6. Do you believe class size is related to student achievement?

I do not entirely agree with this statement because student achievement depends on their motivation level. I notice that on both my small and large classes I have student who really do not seem to care about their grades.

7. Do you believe that smaller class size lead to better teaching and learning?

I use the same teaching method for both my small classes were larger ones. I always lecture and work problems on the board. The only thing I do notice is that I have more time to ask more questions to the same students in my smaller classes.

8. Do you feel that you have more discipline problems in your large class size?

No, the students were not disruptive and were very cooperative in my larger class size. The only thing I notice is that they look out the window at people passing by.

9. What complication arises from having more than 30 students in your class?

I sometimes do not have the time to work with the learning center students as much as I would like to. Most of those kids need more attention. I have one student who is constantly moving around in his desk and makes strange faces. He always raises his hand and say, “I do not understand.

10. Do your teaching methods change in response to class size?

I do not think they do because I always work problems on the board and ask questions to various students.

11. In a large class size do you use group work or find your self lecturing more? Why?

In both my small and large class size I lecture most of the time because I feel this is the best method to teach them. I always demonstrate how they should work the problem out and even show them other methods of solving problems.

12. What types of students would benefit from smaller class size and why?

The learning center students I have struggle academically because some of these students get low 60’s on quizzes and tests. The only student I feel needs to be in a smaller class is Juan because he is constantly staring at the walls and makes strange faces. He was initially in my 1st period class but he needed to be in a lower level physics class called fundamental physics so the assistant principal changed his scheduled. I feel he gets nervous around students and needs a smaller environment where I can help him with any specific question he may have.

13. What were some benefits to students in a small class size?

I believe I would be able to help more students out individually by clarifying any misconception they may have.

14. Do you provide more individualized feedback in small classes than in large classes?

I think I provide equal amounts of individualized feedback to all my students.

15. Do you feel more relaxed and less pressured giving daily lectures in small class size?

I feel pretty much the same in all of my classes.


Part II (Seating)

1. What type of seating do you prefer for students in your class and why?

I am an old fashion teacher who believes that traditional rows were great for students. A few years ago I tried group seating but it did not function quite well. Students were constantly talking to one another and copying their neighbor’s answers. When I switched
back to rows, students were less likely to engage in talking.

2. Do you have assign seats in your classroom? Why?

During the first day of classes, I assign seat because I do not want students to seat near their friends. I want to establish in the first day that I take discipline serious and do not want to loose control of them.

3. Based on the number of students you have did you get the room you requested?

I did not request a different room because there were no bigger classrooms in this school. This is actually one of the largest room the school has.

4. Do you feel that certain types of seating arrangements help in classroom management?

Yes, I use rows in my classroom to prevent students from going off task.

5. In your opinion what is the best seating arrangement for a larger class size?

For large class size I use rows because in groups they were most likely to go off task.

6. Where do you place students who were constantly off task and were staring out the window?

All of the learning center students were in the front rows and seem to do alright because I can keep a better watch. The only problem I have is with Juan who is in the front but is very distracted. I have recently moved my podium closer and he seem to have calmed down.

7. What were the pros and cons of putting problem behavior students at the front?

Some of the benefits were that you can keep a better eye on them. One problem I have is that I have to change the seat of my better behaved students and place them in the back. Some of my students complain that they can not see the board.

8. Were you aware of physical constraints in the classroom?

Yes, I have a hard time walking through the rows. There is not enough room to arrange the desk in any other way.

9. Do you change seating arrangements every six weeks to maximize students ability to listen
and learn ?

I change the seating arrangement when I feel that they were becoming friends with their neighbors but I have no specific time frame for changing seats.


Interview 2 Questions
(Typed Copy of Transcript)

Mr. Harris

Research Question: How does the class size and seating affect student learning?

Part I (Class Size)

1. How many years have you been teaching?

I returned to Saint Joseph Academy during the 2006-2007 school year. Four years before I was teaching senior at Pace High School. I have been teaching for fourteen years now. I enjoy my job and can not see myself doing anything else. I will stop teaching only when I decide to retire. That is still a few years from now.

2. Do you have more or fewer students in your class this year?

Here at Saint Joseph academy I have the same class size I had last year.

3. What is you largest class this year?

I have thirty two students in my sixth period and thirty one students in first period.

4. What is your smallest class size this year?

I have fifteen students in my first period and have twenty six students in my fifth period.

5. In your opinion how many students should be in your class? Why?

I believe that I should have no more than twenty six students that way I can provide more one on one help and more assistance to them. I sometimes feel overwhelmed and tired when I go home.

6. Do you believe class size is related to student achievement?

Yes, I do feel class size is related to student achievement because I can not give them
individualize attention in large classes. My smallest class I have more time to go to every
child’s desk and I have more time available to assist them with their assignment. In my larger
classes, I can only help a few students.

7. Do you believe that smaller class size lead to better teaching and learning?

Yes, students were not as distracted and the noise level is very low. There were less
interruptions and misbehavior that occurs. Plus you get to know the students better and can
assist them more if needed.

8. Do you feel that you have more discipline problems in your large class size?

Yes, I seem to give more referrals to students in my larger class periods. Some of these students get in trouble for speaking to their neighbor or answering back to me. I do give once in a while referral in my small class but it is not very common.

9. What complication arises from having more than 30 students in your class?

One complication is that students go off task and start to whisper to their neighbors. I sometimes feel overwhelmed with the amount of paper I have to grade. Sometimes I go home with a headache.

10. Do your teaching methods change in response to class size?

No, I lecture and we have whole group discussions in the classroom. In my classroom the students do a lot of research and write essays. Once a week we go to the computer lab for students to look up sources and have access to computers.

11. In a large class size do you use group work or find your self lecturing more? Why?

I lecture for about twenty minutes during the class time and my students discuss novels we are reading. I do not feel that I lecture more in one particular class.

12. What types of students would benefit from smaller class size and why?

I have several students who are from Matamoros that struggle with the English language.
These students would benefit from more individualize attention that I can provide if they
were in my third period.

13. What were some benefits to students in a small class size?

Some benefits were less noise, limited distraction and more attention provided to students.

14. Do you provide more individualized feedback in small classes than in large classes?

Unfortunately, I do provide more individualize feedback in my smaller classes.

15. Do you feel more relaxed and less pressured giving daily lectures in small class size?

No, I feel about the same given lectures to my smaller classes and larger classes.


Part II (Seating)

1. What type of seating do you prefer for students in your class and why?

I have limited space in my class room so I use rows. If I had the space, I would have tables that would be aligned in a semi-circle. This would be terrific when we were discussing novels or having debates. Another seating arrangement I would try were clusters where desks were put together to form groups. Students of different academic ability would work together and they could teach one another.

2. Do you have assign seats in your classroom? Why?

I do assign students seats in my classroom because it helps me promote discipline in my classroom. My students were social butterflies so they need to be kept apart from their friends.

3. Based on the number of students you have did you get the room you requested?

All of the English classrooms were located in room 21 through 25 so I had no choice to request a larger classroom.

4. Do you feel that certain types of seating arrangements help in classroom management?

When you have a large class size what has worked in the past for me is to arrange my room in rows. This helps keep the talking to a minimum and prevents students from going off task.

5. In your opinion what is the best seating arrangement for a larger class size?

The best seating arrangement for larger classes is rows because that has worked well for me. This keeps my students from talking with their neighbor. Once I tried having student work in pairs but not much work got done. Students were talking to one another and one group was drawing pictures on their papers.

6. Where do you place students who are constantly off task and were staring out the window?

Students who get easily distracted were placed near the front of the class away from the
windows.

7. What were the pros and cons of putting problem behavior students at the front?

Sometimes I have to move my well behaved students in another location to accommodate my trouble makers. I think that is unfair to my on task students but it has to be done.

8. Were you aware of physical constraints in the classroom?

No, even though I have large class size I can still move around the room quite easily.

9. Do you change seating arrangements every six weeks to maximize students ability to listen and learn?

It depends because if I feel that students were starting to socialize I change their seats.
Sometimes it takes me more than six weeks to change their seats.