Whether small class size better is better than large class size (Essay Sample)

Learning in university education Student’s Name University Affiliation Date The issue over whether small class sizes are preferable to large class sizes has been explored in various works of literature, as researchers attempt to help education stakeholders in their quest to improve overall outcomes. Inevitably, it has been suggested that small class sizes are better whereas opponents swiftly present counterarguments claiming that large class sizes are preferable. This report argues that small class sizes presents various benefits thus making them preferable. Small class sizes are always preferable to large class sizes due to a number of benefits including the fact that large class sizes tend to negatively affect students’ and tutors’ motivation as well as attitude (Kokkelenberg, Dilllon, & Christy 2008, p 223). In essence, large class sizes mean that students and professors do not feel as satisfied with the experience as they would have in small class size environment, which implies that some learning opportunities may be lost. Proponents of large class sizes often point out that such environments provide economies of scale in terms of schools being able to educate many students together and spreading the costs. Van Roekel (2008) notes that proposals to reduce class sizes and realize the benefits often hinges on the costs to hire additional professors and restructure classroom space as needed in small class size environments. In the debate, rarely are the costs linked to failure to reduce class sizes highlighted, which have far-reaching consequences including the cost to society in higher dropout levels as well as the reduced earning potential of poorly educated populations. Indeed, such propositions tend to overlook the all important experience students and professors get from small size learning environment. Simply put, a negative experience for students is likely to lead to negative education outcomes. This is because a positive experience promotes critical thinking as well as problem solving, which are best taught in small class size learning environments. According to a study by Kokkelenberg, Dilllon, & Christy (2008, p 229), there are diseconomies of scale linked to a deterioration of education outcomes as class sizes increase. This means that large class sizes leads to some unforeseen negative student outcomes including a negative student experience, which may be caused by decreased attention to individual student needs as well as the intensity of engagement in learning. More often than not, small class size means that faculty members can direct their attention to individual students with relative ease and possibly help learners in areas they face academic and life challenges. The implication is that small class sizes are increasingly preferable. Small class sizes are always preferable to large class sizes especially when considering the manner in which learning takes place. Increasingly, academic lectures remain the primary mode of instruction and Lee (2009, p 43) notes that small class sizes provide students and professors the opportunity to engage in interactive as well as non-interactive conversations that are at the core of academic lectures. More so, small class sizes enable professors intensely to engage students through the use of linguistic cue signal, which help students through indicating the direction of the conversation pinpointing the relative significance of and association between ideas, as well as evaluating them (Lee 2009, p 43). The insinuation is that large class sizes do not provide a facilitating environment in which professors can intensely engage their students and improve their overall understanding via interactivity. Proponents of large class sizes have claimed that class sizes has little effect on the learning process, and often claim that professors’ ability to deliver information through lecture materials is all that matter. Yet, such claims are abstract at best especially because they fail to consider the feature at the core of learning process. Lee (2009) demonstrates that learning process involves interactive lectures that tend to be typified through a greater number of the pronouns we and you, questions, elicitation markers, as well as audience- professor interaction. Without a doubt, interactivity is influenced by the class size and small class sizes are increasingly conducive for verbal interaction between students and professors. It follows that small class sizes are increasingly preferable because they support the process through which learning is delivered and potentially contributes to enhanced student outcomes. Johnson (2010, p 703) notes that class size is strongly linked to the kinds of assignments as well as the level of student involvement in the learning process. This includes the suggestion that large class sizes are less likely to involve oral presentations or written papers and increasingly likely to grade learners based on multiple-choice tests. What is more, large class sizes usually mean that instructors do not always track student attendance, which make them more likely to skip ...