Class size has been a focused issue in education. It is generally believed that to learn in a small class is much easier than to learn in big class. This belief can be supported in regard to the following two reasons, in my opinion.
First, a small class makes classroom management comparatively easy. Research shows that teachers complain about wasting precious class time on classroom management, such as disciplining students and smoothing the procedure for classroom activities. Further, research shows that how much time is wasted on classroom management is much related to class size. That is to say, the bigger the class is, the more time it is wasted on classroom management. This can be easily understood. For example, 10 or 20 students in a small class make much lower noise than 70 or 80 students in a big class, when the students are murmuring without listening to the teacher. In a small class, the teacher can quickly stop the 10 or 20 students talking and completely control the class. In contrast to that, in a big class that has 70 or 80 students, while the teacher stops a group of students talking, another group of students start. In the end, the teacher can be at a loss.
Second, a small class enhances classroom interaction. The enhancement of classroom interaction could be between the teacher and a student or between students. Let’s take the interaction between the teacher and a student as an example. With a small class, the teacher has the opportunity interacting with every student, therefore discovering and solving their learning difficulty about the instructed content. This kind of individual-based interaction between the teacher and a student can be in a variety of formats, such as the student asking questions, expressing his/her opinion and commenting on the lesson. Obviously, a big class does not provide such opportunities as much as a small class. A teacher complained, “If every student in my class takes a minute to speak, 50 students will take all... [continues]
First, a small class makes classroom management comparatively easy. Research shows that teachers complain about wasting precious class time on classroom management, such as disciplining students and smoothing the procedure for classroom activities. Further, research shows that how much time is wasted on classroom management is much related to class size. That is to say, the bigger the class is, the more time it is wasted on classroom management. This can be easily understood. For example, 10 or 20 students in a small class make much lower noise than 70 or 80 students in a big class, when the students are murmuring without listening to the teacher. In a small class, the teacher can quickly stop the 10 or 20 students talking and completely control the class. In contrast to that, in a big class that has 70 or 80 students, while the teacher stops a group of students talking, another group of students start. In the end, the teacher can be at a loss.
Second, a small class enhances classroom interaction. The enhancement of classroom interaction could be between the teacher and a student or between students. Let’s take the interaction between the teacher and a student as an example. With a small class, the teacher has the opportunity interacting with every student, therefore discovering and solving their learning difficulty about the instructed content. This kind of individual-based interaction between the teacher and a student can be in a variety of formats, such as the student asking questions, expressing his/her opinion and commenting on the lesson. Obviously, a big class does not provide such opportunities as much as a small class. A teacher complained, “If every student in my class takes a minute to speak, 50 students will take all... [continues]
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