By: Tony DePrato | Follow me on Twitter @tdeprato
A classroom containing 18–24 students appears to be the ideal number. Anything less and you lose the unique excitement that comes from a critical mass of engaged students. ~A Commentary and Review of Malcom Gladwell’s research on small class sizes; David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell
The Hattie Research
I was introduced to Visible Learning by John Hattie a few years ago. After studying the data, and doing a course that focused on the data, I was forced to reflect on my beliefs and practices as an educator.
As an IT professional that actually uses meta data to make decisions, I knew the power of data about data.
I think the one point that must be made is that the data and analysis used by Hattie is what is known as long-tail data. Hattie did not find a “smoking gun” or a “big reveal”. He found a collection of things, that when working in combination, make a difference in learning out comes.
This data, when studied, must be studied as a collection. Focusing on a single point, and believing doing “that one thing” will make a difference, is a mistake.
The Hattie data can be viewed here.
The following image focuses on the areas addressed in this post.
The Class Size Issue in Project Based Subjects
The relationship between class size and project based subjects is inverse compared to studies that look at traditional courses where instruction is rote, and the differentiation needs to be very focused.
Of the top 22 Hattie indicators, 10 connect directly to courses that at project based:
- Self Report Grades
- Piagetian Programs
- Response to Intervention
- Cognitive Task Analysis
- Classroom Discussion
- Teacher Clarity (Students Questioning Teacher Instruction)
- Reciprocal Teaching (6 Facets of Understanding)
- Feedback
- Formative Evaluation
- Self Questioning
Class size has been a central focus in nearly every school improvement plan I have been connect with. In fact, I recently helped build a schedule that was nearly solely dictated by class size.
As some one who solely works in project based subjects, team driven contests, and peer reviewed assessment I can attest that small classes are detrimental to learning in these environments.
When a class falls below 12 students, the student input, instances of serendipitous discoveries, the diversity of teams, and the needed conflict to fuel trial and error scenarios all diminish. To be clear: the class becomes boring and stagnant.
Students need to be formed and re-formed into teams and groups in a project based environment. They need variety of opinion. They need to take the lead and be the teacher; they need to lead their peers; and they need their peers to explain “what went wrong” when failure happens. And failure will happen more often than trophies are presented.
If a class size is too small, this process (learning spiral) becomes repetitive and predictable. In my experience, small classes can be a stimulus for groupthink.
As a teacher, I can entertain and keep the energy going. As a believer in a student-centered environment where there is no “front of the room”, being the center of attention undermines that belief.
Successful Projects are Busy and Messy
I recently visited three MIT powered Fablabs. All the labs were busy, messy, and had learners ranging in age from 16-60.
These people were working on entrepreneurial projects, or science projects. The work is difficult at every turn, and the skills are interdisciplinary. In fact, I doubt it is possible for a single person to do their entire project alone. There is collaboration, and exchange of work and ideas, and a general consensus that failure is going to be very common.
These labs run programs and open work days based on simple metrics:
- The capacity of the room
- The availability of the staff/instructors to help people with specialized equipment
They do not balance sessions to keep the number of people to an optimal level of learning, because they know that having a variety of people means having a variety of talents and ideas.
Project based subjects are not about giving everyone an opinion or platform for an idea. These subjects revolve around taking an idea and making it a reality. Students not only have a variety of known talents, they also have a hidden talents.
Engaging students with a group of people they may not socialize with; allowing them to team up to offset each other’s weaknesses; and scaffolding peer/self criticism into every project is the secret to unlocking a students potential. New potential will lead students to see new opportunities.
Creating opportunity for students should always supersede creating small classes for the sake of creating small classes.