Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Paige Hetrick
Mrs. Cramer
College Composition 1
12/7/18
The ideal student receives straight A letter grades in his or her classes. He or she always
attends class, pays attention, wants to be enrolled in the course being taken and is given the
appropriate resources to succeed in school. Resources such as, available experienced teachers
provide the ideal student with a path to success. Many argue that class sizes affect a student's
learning. However, there are many more factors that outweigh the effects of a classes size on
students. Given proper resources, and a will to learn, students can succeed in learning, despite
having a large classroom setting. Reducing class size in schools alone, will not improve a
students’ education because the factors of student enrollment, and the availability of experienced
instructor. However, experienced instruction is not easy to find, and accessible to everyone. The
teaching profession is no longer popular, and the number of experienced and specialized
instructors is rapidly declining. A students’ ability to learn is offset more by the quality of the
teaching they receive, rather than the size of the class they are in. According to groups of
elementary school teachers in Tennessee, there are not many highly skilled teachers, and it is
difficult to employ them. This is due to the fact schools cannot find specialized teachers, nor can
they afford to pay these highly skilled employees. The same Tennessee teachers claimed they
had to teach classes they were not certified to teach. This means, schools had unexperienced staff
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instructing courses they were not trained to instruct. (Lakdawalla66). Finding good teaching is
like a treasure hunt, good teaching is valuable and difficult to obtain.1 In the end, if class sizes
are lowered, the schools will need more teachers that they cannot afford, nor find. Because of
this, students would receive a lesser learning experience at the cost of a smaller classroom. On a
similar note, it would not benefit students to have teachers that do not know how to teach the
proper material. Teachers who cannot teach course material properly, cause students to miss out
on important learning opportunities. Students could receive a better education in a larger class
setting with an experienced, qualified teacher rather than a smaller class with an instructor who is
not qualified or able to teach the course properly. (Lakdawalla66). In short, experienced teachers
are in small quantity and are necessary for quality instruction. Class sizes should not be lowered
because it will decrease the amount of quality instruction and, in turn, yield a lesser standard of
learning.
On another note, large classroom sizes can overwhelm both students and teachers. Some
teachers claim it is harder to instruct, to grade, to organize large classes. 2 This argument is easy
to ignore considering a study on test scores in the early 90’s called Project STAR. Project STAR
studied test groups of teachers and students with added variation. Some test groups had teachers
with no incentives given and smaller classes, some had large classes with no incentives given to
teachers, and some had large classes with additional incentives given to the teachers. The added
1
Simile- Finding good teaching is being compared to a treasure hunt using like or as.
organizing. There are purposely omitted conjunctions from a series of related causes.
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incentives were extra pay given, based on the overall achievement of the students on tests. The
larger classes with incentives yielded almost the same scores as the smaller classes. The larger
classes without incentives given to the teachers did the worst with test scores (Januszka and
Dixon-Krauss 167). This means that smaller class sizes can help better learning and
comprehension but can be equally matched by motivated teaching. Teachers will work harder
and give their students a better learning experience if inspired to (Januszka and Dixon-Krauss
167). In conclusion, large classroom sizes are manageable, and can be effectively taught if
To add, teachers claim that larger class sizes result in more disciplinary problems from
students. In turn, this makes smaller class sizes more appealing. However, this is false since,
environment (Januszka and Dixon-Krauss 167). Students who act out will not stop acting out just
because the number of peers in their class may change. Disciplinary problems would continue to
happen and possibly get worse because the smaller class sizes would draw more direct attention
to the misbehaving student(s). This would single out students and possibly make the problem
more severe. Not to mention, more disruption takes away from the learning of other students.
Lowering class sizes would potentially factor into a decrease in cognitive learning. There are
other ways to combat disruptive behavior, for example, changing the position of the student in
the class. This could put the student closer to supervision, and potentially decrease the disruptive
behavior (Januszka and Dixon-Krauss 167). Altogether, smaller classes wouldn’t solve
disciplinary issues, but potentially aggravate students more, and make the disruptions worse.
Without doubt, the self-enrollment of a student can determine how much he or she learns
in a class. There is a fine line between the amount of skill, effort and interest a student will apply
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to a class when he or she is forced, compared to that of his or her own self enrollment. Students
who enroll themselves receive higher grades and put more effort into learning. In 2005, 649
elementary schools measured their class sizes, and tracked the progress made in the education of
each. Along with class size, this study tracked how many students self-enrolled in the classes and
how many were enrolled by administration. The study showed that the average scores produced
by self-enrolled students were higher than by students forced into enrollment. (Hoxby1239).
Students forced into enrollment may not try as hard, or want to, they might not have a taste for
the fruit of knowledge. 3 This in turn, shows that students learn more, and perform better when
they express their own interest in a course, rather than a school's decision to make students take
classes they may not care about. On the same idea, student motivation, and the will of a student
to perform well, combat the effects of class size. Students who work harder on their academics,
ask questions, and place themselves at the front of the class yield higher test scores than those
who do not. According to the same 2005 study, data showed students averaging better grades sat
in the front, asked questions, and ultimately made greater effort to succeed. (Hoxby 1239). In the
end, students who enroll in courses willingly, and place more effort into learning, perform better
in school.
In final, the reduction of class size alone does not make a student's education better.
Because, student's effort, self-enrollment, and the availability of experienced teachers outbalance
the effects of large class sizes on learning. The ideal student gets straight A’s, he or she always
3
Analogy- The taste of fruit is compared to the desire or lack thereof desire to learn. Two
dissimilar ideas are compared to better explain the idea that some students do not enjoy or seek
learning.
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pays attention, applies effort, tries the best he or she can. He or she can excel in school because
he or she has multiple experienced teachers, that give quality instruction, and give him or her the
best chance to succeed. Overall, students who self-enroll, put in great effort, and have skilled
experienced teachers, will learn more than ones who are placed in smaller classes with less
experienced teachers. Administration and schools should focus more on shaping an ideal student
if they want to increase cognitive learning in children, not change the size of classrooms.
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Works Cited
Hoxby, Caroline M. "The effects of class size on student achievement: new evidence from
population variation [*]." Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 115, no. 4, 2000, p. 1239.
Academic OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A68653517/AONE?u=pl1949&sid=AONE&xid=139
Januszka, Cynthia, and Lisbeth Dixon-Krauss. "Class size: a battle between accountability and
quality instruction." Childhood Education, vol. 84, no. 3, 2008, p. 167+. Academic
OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A176049285/AONE?u=pl1949&sid=AONE&xid=4c
Lakdawalla, Darius. "Quantity over quality; ever-declining class sizes and teachers' dwindling
pay have a common explanation: the increasing price of skilled labor. (Research)."
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A91821097/AONE?u=pl1949&sid=AONE&xid=759