As a school student, I never enjoyed my presence in a class with more than 40 students. In Afghanistan, most of the schools have a number of 30 to 50, and sometimes the number increases to 60 students per class. Recent research has shown a class with the high number of students can be a cause to learn insufficiently, and also can cause a teacher not to put as much effort as he or she is ought to. RCS or, reduction of class size program, has been implemented in many states of America to increase the academic achievement; it is suggested by some researchers. (Graue, Hatch and Rao). When class size is reduced, students’ academic achievement increases, teachers’ performance improves, and the government has to increase the budget for schools.
RCS increases students' academic achievement. Studies have shown student engagement is based on academic engagement and social engagement. Social engagement is the prosocial and antisocial behavior. Prosocial is the interaction of the students to follow the rules of the teachers and cooperating with other students in the class; in contrast, antisocial means not to follow the teachers’ rules and not to interact positively with other students. Academic engagement is the behavior of students for their learning process like the time they spend for their task, participation in activities, and so on. Both forms of engagement relate to academic performance directly. Studies have been done during 1960-1970 that determined students’ attention to the teachers has a strong effect on their achievement (D. Finn, M. Pannozzo and M. AchillesSource). Thus, the reduced number of students causes the academic achievement to improve.
When, the classes are reduced in small groups of students, they behave prosaically. Students have more opportunities to use the existence facilities in the class, libraries, laboratories, and gym; as a consequence, students become more active and commitment in the school; they learn better and have more consideration on schooling. For instance, when a small group of pupils are in laboratory, each one of them has the chance to experience what a chemistry practice tells them and follow the teacher; it causes the students to have more participation in the class. Therefore, they absorb the lessons better and academic achievement increases.
Meanwhile, teachers find more opportunities to be engaged with students in small classes. (Graue, Hatch and Rao). They will find more time for students to go individually and solve their problems; also instructors will develop a better method of teaching by having more time. For example, a math teacher can explain the lesson in better manner when there are fewer students; he or she can check up each individual to make sure everybody learns the lesson. As a result, teachers will have a better control of situation and develop her or his interaction with students.
Furthermore, the government budget will increase if the class size reduces. When class size is reduced, for sure, the number of classes increases which means more schools with more resources and facilities like library, laboratory, and gym. Government has to spend much more money in order to buy more land to build more schools. Also, more schools cause more teachers, so the budget for teachers’ salaries increases. Consequently, the CSR has an effect on government to raise the budget to construct more schools.
In conclusion, to create an educational environment that students can learn better, reducing class size is required. It affects them to be more motivated in the class, and results the teachers to boost the students’ academic achievement by better methods of teaching and more time to observe; also the next category, affected by RCS, is government increases in the budget to establish more schools. RCS or, reducing class size, is an effective way of developing education in a country.
Work sited
D. Finn, Jeremy, Gina M. Pannozzo and Charles M. AchillesSource. "The "Why's" of Class Size: Student Behavior in Small Classes." American Educational research Resources (Autumn, 2003): pp. 321-368.
Graue, Elizabeth, et al. "The Wisdom of Class-Size Reduction." American Educational Research Assocaion (Sep 2007): pp. 670-700.
