A new statistical analysis of data from along-term study on the teaching of mathematics and science has found thatsmaller class sizes are not always associated with better pupil performance andachievement.
MSU Professor Spyros Konstantopoulos aimed to gain a clearer picture by analyzing data produced by the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS. These findings are reported in a paper in Research Papers in Education.
The precise effect of smaller class sizes canvary between countries, academic subjects, years and different cognitive andnon-cognitive skills, with many other factors likely playing a role.
Smaller class sizes in schools are generallyseen as highly desirable, especially by parents. With smaller class sizes, teacherscan more easily maintain control and give more attention to each pupil. Assuch, many countries limit the maximum size of a class, often at around 30pupils.
However, research into the effects of classsize has generally proved inconclusive, with some studies finding benefits andsome not. Furthermore, these studies have often been rather small scale, have tendedto focus purely on reading and mathematics and have not considered the effectof class size on non-cognitive skills such as interest and attentiveness.
A look at four countries
Every four years since 1995, TIMSS hasmonitored the performance and achievement of fourth and eighth grade pupils fromaround 50 countries in mathematics and science. It records pupils’ academicability in these subjects and their self-reported attitude and interest in themand also contains information on class sizes.
To make the analysis more manageable, the researchers limited it to data from eighth grade pupils in four European countries—Hungary, Lithuania, Romania and Slovenia—collected in 2003, 2007 and 2011. They chose these four countries because they all mandate maximum class sizes, which would help to make the statistical analysis more reliable. Despite these limitations, the data still encompassed 4,277 pupils from 231 classes in 151 schools, making it much larger than most previous studies on class size. It was also the first study to investigate the effects of class size on both specific science subjects, comprising biology, chemistry, physics and earth science, and non-cognitive skills.
The analysis revealed that smaller classsizes were associated with benefits in Romania and Lithuania, but not inHungary and Slovenia. The beneficial effects were most marked in Romania, wheresmaller classes were associated with greater academic achievement in mathematics,physics, chemistry and earth science, as well as greater enjoyment of learningmathematics.
In Lithuania, however, smaller class sizes weremainly associated with improvements in non-cognitive skills such as greaterenjoyment in learning biology and chemistry, rather than higher academicachievement in these subjects. The beneficial effects were also only seen incertain years.
“Most class size effects were not different than zero, which suggests that reducing class size does not automatically guarantee improvements in student performance,” said Konstantopoulos, a faculty member in the Measurement and Quantitative Methods program at MSU. “Many other classroom processes and dynamics factor in and have to work well together to achieve successful outcomes in student learning.”
The researchers think smaller class sizes mayhave had greater beneficial effects on pupils in Romania and Lithuania than in Hungaryand Slovenia because schools in Romania and Lithuania have fewer resources.
“This finding is perhaps due to the fact that class size effects are more likely to be detected in countries with limited school resources where teacher quality is lower on average,” Konstantopoulos said.
This story was modified from a press release originally posted by Taylor & Francis Group.