Hi Melvin,
In a message to Charles Beams you wrote:
-> I realize my information is merely anecdotal.
-> But, AT THE HIGH SCHOOL, I submit that there is certainly a
-> correlation between success and class size (smaller size tending
-> towards increased success). But that correlation is a loose one. I
-> have just had so many joyful classes that were large, but had a great
-> mix of students. In other words, what I like to call the "right
-> chemistry."
-> On the other hand, I have had smaller classes that just didn't jell.
-> Perhaps things were just oo dull. It was the wrong mix. We didn't
-> have the critical mass to really move forward.
I've been following this thread, but haven't added comments up to this
point. I would CERTAINLY argue in favor of class size, but when you
commented some time back (the first time you brought up the topic) about
the "right mix" of kids, and how a small group can be terrible and a
large group with the "right mix" might be quite pleasant, this seemed to
correspond to my experience as well. So I didn't say anything.
But the longer this thread goes on, the more I think about it, and the
more I think that "the right mix" is the wrong idea.
I think it simply boils down to this: A few trouble makers in ANY size
class, including a small class, can really throw a wrench into the
works. When this handful of trouble makers is removed, (say they happend
to be absent on the same day) the class becomes positively enjoyable.
What this boils down to, then, is an argument in favor of
self-motivated, cooperative students.
Given, then, a mix of students of the same "cooperation levels", I would
bet that class size definitely DOES make a difference. As a matter of
fact, this is one of the things that bothers me so much about studies
which purport to find evidence in one direction of the other about how
class size affects performance. The fact is that there are SO MANY
variables in any group of students that affect their performance, I
don't see how we can control effectively during any study to be certain
that any differences in performance can be reliably attributed to that
single factor: class size. District wide studies, which involve large
numbers of students such that minor differences such as this would tend
to be negated would have more merit IMHO.
Sheila
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