RP>It seems to me, on average, about one in every 10 kids is going to
RP>give you headaches. And the amount of trouble they cause is given
RP>by the expression "n squared", because troublemakers develop synergy
RP>(whereby the whole has a greater effect than the sum of its parts)
RP>1 kid, not too bad. 2 kids, that's 4 x as bad, 3 kids - now you have
RP>9 x the grief. In a largish class, say between 30 and 40, you're
RP>likely to have at least 3 troublemakers, depending somewhat on the
RP>academic level and the type of course (grade 12 Calculus should be
RP>fairly quiet). So I would say the larger the class, the more likely
RP>and more often there will be problems. The only salvation is that
RP>on any given day two of the three will skip class.
Hi Rick,
I can't dispute any of what you write above. But, you were responding to
my response to Melvin Billik, in which he wrote that there is a LOOSE
CORRELATION between class size and...(?) (shoot, I deleted it and now I
don't know what word he used!) ... student performance, class
manageability, teacher nirvana????
I said that the correlation was loose because of the inability to
control for other factors. Your point seems to be that any class of 30
to 40 (fairly heterogenous mix of students, I'm assuming) is going to
have problems. I'd agree with that, and I don't see how it responds to
the points above...maybe you didn't mean for it to have any direct tie
to them?
My main point is that, ok, I guess maybe you want me to give a maximum
class size for which this is a true statement?...is that individual
student motivation is the issue in the examples that Melvin is citing,
not especially class size. Once the 3 or so troublemakers are removed,
the class is fine. (By the way, I like how you note that the n trouble
makers cause n squared agitation...)
OK, for classes of 30 or below in elementary, and for 35 and below
secondary, it seems to me that the issue is individual motivation of
students. If all the kids came to school ready, willing and wanting to
learn (a Utopia, I know, but still, this is a theoretical discussion)
I'd bet that class size wouldn't be as much of an issue as it is today.
Sheila
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