-=> Quoting Sheila King to Rick Pedley <=-
 SK> Hi Rick,
 SK> I said that the correlation was loose because of the inability to
 SK> control for other factors. Your point seems to be that any class of 30
 SK> to 40 (fairly heterogenous mix of students, I'm assuming) is going to
 SK> have problems. I'd agree with that, and I don't see how it responds to
 SK> the points above...maybe you didn't mean for it to have any direct tie
 SK> to them?
I don't remember responding to anything now, just throwing in my
two cents worth :)
 SK> OK, for classes of 30 or below in elementary, and for 35 and below
 SK> secondary, it seems to me that the issue is individual motivation of
 SK> students. If all the kids came to school ready, willing and wanting to
 SK> learn (a Utopia, I know, but still, this is a theoretical discussion)
 SK> I'd bet that class size wouldn't be as much of an issue as it is
 SK> today.
I went to high school in the '60s when schools were very crowded, some
classes 40 and over, with kids sitting on window sills because there
weren't enough desks and chairs. Schools were much stricter back then;
it was a more authoritarian system, and it wasn't uncommon for a
teacher to grab a kid and throw him up against a wall, slap him with
one of those 10-pound yard sticks, or throw a piece of chalk or a board
eraser. And if you went home and complained to Dad about it, then you
were in _real_ trouble; today, a lawyer would be hired. Even with a
relative carte blanche in terms of discipline compared with today's
schools, there was as much bedlam in those classes as any teacher could
handle (my grade 10 English teacher used to pop pills right in front
of us).
I don't think I was ever in one of those mythical Utopian classes
except maybe grade 10 Science, taught by an ex-British Royal Marine
officer. He was department head, and other _teachers_ feared him :)
Everything else being equal, it's a good bet that larger class size
will never _improve_ a teaching situation. You never hear a teacher
say: "I wish I had more kids, then the class would settle right down."
I'd say there is a fairly high correlation between class size and
degree of bother. If there are three difficult students in a class
of 14, it seems less of a strain because over-all you have less to
deal with.
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