13.4 These results must, however, be treated with caution for the reasons advanced earlier in the report. Most importantly, previous research where the results have been of greater significance have compared classes of around 15 pupils with those that in some cases were in the mid thirties. The previous research does suggest that although there are some benefits when classes are in the range 20-25 these are not as clear cut. In the present study some Cohort 3 classes were only marginally greater than the small class limit of 25, either because of declining rolls or because school Principals, having experienced small classes, juggled with existing resources in the attempt to continue to keep numbers as small as possible in the initial years of primary schooling.
Thus in some cases the comparisons may not have afforded a sufficient difference in class composition to yield medium to large effect sizes.
13.5 The third question dealt with the impact of pupil and teacher behaviours on pupils’ attainment and attitudes. Here the results were again not clear cut. Four different teaching approaches were identified but there was no consistent relationship with different kinds of pupil behaviour. This suggested that the various pupil types were more a matter of individual temperament or personality rather than a consequence of a particular teaching approach. The analysis of differences between small and normal classes indicated that while teachers in the latter classes were mostly wedded to whole class instruction with the smallest proportion of active pupil participation, their colleagues in small classes were much more experimental in their choice of approach.
Insofar as there were differences in attainment and attitude it was the transition from instructors to whole class questioning which resulted in several positive differences, particularly improvements in pupils’ disposition towards learning.
13.6 Type 2 teachers (group task monitors) as might be expected had the highest percentage of pupils labelled active collaborators. These pupils have some of the highest levels of distraction suggesting that teachers have yet to master the effective use of collaborative group activities. This view is supported by the informal observation carried out during the consultant’s visits to schools as typified by the earlier description of the mathematics lessons (paras 4.3 and 4.4). Group work was often used for tasks with relatively trivial academic outcomes and where ground rules for working effectively were seldom reinforced as the theory suggests they should be. At this present stage of development pair work would seem the better option.
13.7 The question of whether smaller classes were of particular value in schools having a high proportion of disadvantage students was also considered. In both Chinese and mathematics P1 pupils from the ‘disadvantaged’ schools hold their own while in Cohort 2 they do better than the remaining sample of experimental schools. In English, the deficit on entry, largely due to the high proportion of Mainland born children, the disadvantaged schools never make up lost ground. As was true of the results in general, however, any advantage at the end of P1 is eroded by the time pupils have completed their P3 year.
Unlike the comparisons between the small and normal classes where girls in Chinese and English generally do better, in the disadvantaged schools it is the boys who show most improvement initially and whose attitudes, although they decline year by year do so more slowly than do the girls’ dispositions.
13.8 The final set of questions examined other possible variables which might contribute to successful SCT. These contributions however were relatively small and their influence diminished as pupils moved through the primary school. Schools contributed a maximum of around 8% to the variation in scores in P1 and around 6% by the time pupils reached the end of the P4 year.
Two of the strongest components of this school contribution were the degree of parental support and the active leadership of the Principal. The influence of parental support lessened as pupils moved from P1 to P4. When an analysis was undertaken which compared the most successful and least successful schools in the experimental sample it was more frequently the case that the mathematics lesson in the least successful schools would be taught by a teacher who had not taken the subject as his or her major/elective.
13.9 Very little evidence emerged from the analysis of different teaching approaches to suggest that one rather than another had a major effect on pupils’ academic progress. But teachers had begun to switch away from whole class instruction towards a mix of sustained individual and pair work with an emphasis on sustained enquiry, group work and more whole class discussion.
Of these three alternative approaches that of cooperative group work appeared less successful in keeping all pupils fully occupied ‘on task.’ Teachers too often had pupils working on activities in groups where each participant had to await his or her turn to measure or write. In these circumstances the non-active pupils were often distracted when they were supposed to be listening or watching attentively. This problem can only be overcome if pupils have been trained to work in groups and if the ‘rules of group work’ are continually reinforced in briefing and debriefing sessions.
13.10 Teachers need different kinds of professional support at different stages.
Initially when beginning to teach small classes the most useful support is from a mentor who can demonstrate certain easily replicated strategies, such as the use of daily talk to increase pupil participation. Once teachers have passed through this initiation stage they need support from outside consultants who can offer various examples of different approaches when teaching certain kinds of topic. The emphasis here should be on the planning rather than the generic pedagogy since at this consolidation stage teachers are extremely task orientated. Visiting other teachers’ classrooms and trying out each other’s practical ideas can also be very beneficial. The third stage, which so far only a few teachers that the consultant has observed and interviewed appear to have reached, is one of re-orientation where the emphasis is on the pedagogy which emerges out of the six principles. Learning circles appear to be the ideal mechanism for promoting this professional dialogue and the use of video to act as a stimulus for these discussions is a crucial element. That is not to say that learning circles are only suitable for teachers at the re-orientation stage;
they can also be used for planning and for discussions about curriculum tasks.
However, it is the highly reflective teachers who are likely to draw the most benefits from the ‘communities of learning’ that learning circles represent.
13.11 Because small classes are designed to increase pupil participation in the learning it is often the case that additional practical resource materials are required. Teachers in Hong Kong work longer hours than those in the West.
The most useful support for the teacher is therefore time; time to plan and to share with colleagues, time to supplement the textbook and its accompanying resources by materials which place the learning in contexts which are meaningful for pupils. The increased use of group and pair work also demands additional resources to support such activities. Principals therefore have to look for ways of helping to find time for teachers to engage in this kind of preparation. Offering more non contact time for professional development activities, having fewer but longer teaching periods and allowing teachers to specialize in certain levels so that they teach more than one class in a year group are all ways of reducing demands on teachers’ time. Whether, in the long term, a bank of resources, available through the individual schools’
intranet, should be created is a question for further consideration. At one extreme, as has happened in the UK, weaker teachers simply use the resource materials as an alternative textbook while in the hand of more imaginative practitioners the resources are adapted and added to. Schools’ collection of video extracts which illustrate the use of the six principles should certainly be of value both for inter and intra school discussions. Teachers can also help themselves by remembering that the school environment is often a useful resource so that in mathematics, for example, there are plenty of examples in the classroom and the school which illustrate, circles, rectangles and triangles.
Pupils can also be a valuable resource in bringing examples from home which can be used to illuminate various lessons.
13.12 The above results do not suggest that smaller classes with between 20 and 25 pupils are of themselves a solution to some of the problems identified during the course of the study. They do not provide a solution to declining attitudes and motivation which are a global phenomenon in the more developed countries; as pupils move up the primary school their interest in core areas of the curriculum decline and the decline is greatest among pupils of higher ability. In Hong Kong this is true of Chinese suggesting that able pupils find the teaching and content of present lessons less than stimulating. Neither do small classes appear to deal with another global issue, that of boys’
underachievement, although in Hong Kong boys continue to outperform girls in mathematics. English for boys, particularly those born in the Mainland, presents formidable problems.
13.13 Nevertheless, teachers in the SCT study have, on the evidence, presented attempts to develop an array of alternative teaching strategies designed to maximise the potential of smaller classes. The very fact that they were engaged in finding ways of using such techniques such as group work and pair work in the context of Hong Kong classrooms may, in part, explain why gains in attainment, where they occurred, produced only small effect sizes.
Research suggests that successful classroom innovation can rarely be achieved in less than five years. Yet despite limited success nearly all teachers in the study said that when faced with a smaller class they experienced less stress and a greater degree of professional comfort. This was true of both the first and second administration of the teachers’ questionnaire, even though during the intervening three years their workload appeared to increase slightly. Many will feel that these feelings alone provide sufficient justification for the extension of small classes to all schools in the near future.