Smaller class sizes in schools fail to increase the resilience of children from low-income families, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal. International Journal of Science Education.
Data on more than 2,700 disadvantaged secondary (secondary) students shows that minimizing the number of students in classrooms does not lead to better grades. Reducing class sizes could even decrease the chances of children achieving the best results, the study authors say.
The number of teachers also does not increase the chances that pupils from poorer backgrounds will succeed academically, despite concerns about staff shortages in schools.
Instead, researchers say that resilience is guaranteed by quality of teachers as those with high standards of discipline and who use their experience to improve learning.
The study’s authors, who analyzed data from China and Japan, now urge policymakers to invest more in high-quality teachers and not waste resources on reducing the number of children in each class.
“This study supports the view that teacher quality, rather than quantity, is the main guarantee of student resilience,” says lead author Professor Tao Jiang of Taizhou University, whose team Research also included experts from his institution and other Chinese universities. universities based in Northwest Normal and Southwest.
“Quality teachers who effectively used teaching methods and managed classroom discipline increased the likelihood that individuals would become resilient learners.
“On the other hand, emphasizing reducing class sizes in schools may not benefit resilience. Smaller classes were either irrelevant to resilience or disadvantageous to resilience.
“The overemphasis on reducing class sizes is unnecessary, as it is detrimental to the emergence of students with high levels of resilience. Instead of allocating financial resources to reduce class sizes, it would be more effective to invest in providing teachers of high-quality sciences.”
Academic resilience is defined as an individual’s ability to withstand adversity and perform well in school. It is not fixed and therefore can be improved and is linked to what happens in schools and classrooms.
The authors of this study set out to identify the qualities and characteristics of 1,594 disadvantaged science students in Japan and 1,114 in the Macau region of China. Ages ranged from approximately 15 to 16 and class sizes ranged from 15 students (or less) to more than 50.
Participants were grouped into low, medium or high level resilience. The researchers looked at which classroom factors, school resources, and school culture increased the odds of being in the high-status group.
All students in the study had participated in the 2015 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international questionnaire-based survey. PISA measures a student’s ability to use their knowledge of reading, mathematics and science.
Teacher discipline and levels of support were among the many issues assessed by PISA. Students were also evaluated on their motivation and anxiety during the exams.
The results generally showed that a third of the students showed a high level of resilience, a quarter low, and the rest medium.
Students with high resilience were very positive about school, science, and their future careers. They also spent more time learning science than others, but experienced test anxiety.
According to the authors, science teachers and their teaching methods “play a crucial role” in developing students’ resilience. Findings show that these students benefited from classroom discipline, teacher-led instruction, inquiry-based teaching, and teacher support.
In Japan, the strongest predictor of high-level resilience was inquiry-based instruction, while in Macau it was teacher-led instruction.
Regarding the impact of class size, smaller classes either had no impact on resilience, as in Macau, or had a negative effect, as in Japan. In contrast, an increase in class size by just one rank increased the odds of disadvantaged students in Japan by 1.2 times getting the best grades rather than the lowest.
Other findings from the study show that poor behavior in the classroom or at school in general undermines resilience.
The study’s messages for teachers include the need to guide students to follow rules, maintain discipline, and prepare lessons according to students’ needs.
The study did not look at changes in how classrooms are managed now compared to before the pandemic. On this basis, the authors suggest that more studies are needed on how COVID-19 has affected teaching in the context of student resilience.