{"id":4600,"date":"2014-06-05T12:23:56","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T20:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/?p=4600"},"modified":"2014-06-04T14:40:59","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T22:40:59","slug":"new-research-on-class-size","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/2014\/06\/new-research-on-class-size\/","title":{"rendered":"New review of research on class size by David Zyngier (Monash U, Australia)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/journal.anzsog.edu.au\/publications\/9\/EvidenceBase2014Issue1.pdf\">Class size and academic results, with a focus on children from culturally, linguistically and economically disenfranchised communities<\/a><\/p>\n<p>David Zyngier<br \/>\nSenior Lecturer in Curriculum and Pedagogy<br \/>\nMonash University<\/p>\n<p>Abstract<br \/>\nThe question of class size continues to attract the attention of educational policymakers and researchers\u00a0alike. Australian politicians and their advisers, policy makers and political commentators agree that\u00a0much of Australia\u2019s increased expenditure on education in the last 30 years has been \u2018wasted\u2019 on\u00a0efforts to reduce class sizes. They conclude that funding is therefore not the problem in Australian\u00a0education, arguing that extra funding has not led to improved academic results. Many scholars have\u00a0found serious methodological issues with the existing reviews that make claims for the lack of\u00a0educational and economic utility in reducing class sizes in schools. Significantly, the research\u00a0supporting the current policy advice to both state and federal ministers of education is highly selective,\u00a0and based on limited studies originating from the USA. This comprehensive review of 112 papers from\u00a01979-2014 assesses whether these conclusions about the effect of smaller class sizes still hold. The\u00a0review draws on a wider range of studies, starting with Australian research, but also includes similar\u00a0education systems such as England, Canada, New Zealand and non-English speaking countries of\u00a0Europe. The review assesses the different measures of class size and how they affect the results, and\u00a0also whether other variables such as teaching methods are taken into account. Findings suggest that\u00a0smaller class sizes in the first four years of school can have an important and lasting impact on student\u00a0achievement, especially for children from culturally, linguistically and economically disenfranchised\u00a0communities. This is particularly true when smaller classes are combined with appropriate teacher\u00a0pedagogies suited to reduced student numbers. Suggested policy recommendations involve targeted\u00a0funding for specific lessons and schools, combined with professional development of teachers. These\u00a0measures may help to address the inequality of schooling and ameliorate the damage done by poverty,\u00a0violence, inadequate child care and other factors to our children\u2019s learning outcomes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Class size and academic results, with a focus on children from culturally, linguistically and economically disenfranchised communities David Zyngier Senior Lecturer in Curriculum and Pedagogy Monash University Abstract The question of class size continues to attract the attention of educational policymakers and researchers\u00a0alike. Australian politicians and their advisers, policy makers and political commentators agree that\u00a0much [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73154,1],"tags":[2844,22668],"class_list":["post-4600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-theory-research","category-uncategorized","tag-class-size","tag-education-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4600"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4607,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4600\/revisions\/4607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}