Does Size Really Matter?

By: William Hodges

Many students during their transition to college have to deal with the changes in class size. This is a problem to some students who are used to the individual attention that they were given by their teachers in their small high school classes. In these classes, that can quadruple the size of some high school classes, the professors are not able to give as much attention to a struggling student. It also does not make it easy for students to get questions answered because of the impersonal environment. According to studies performed by G. Glass “reductions in class size resulted in an increase in academic achievement.” He also says that “Class sizes of 15 or fewer students could be expected to increase achievement scores by approximately half a standard deviation.” Why do institutions create such large class sizes than. By filling classes, the institution can save money by not having to hire more professors to teach more classes, and they are able to save space by not require more class rooms.

Many schools have tried to counteract this problem by creating smaller classes in which a teacher’s assistant is there to answer question and help students further learn the information that they had seen in their large classes. This works to the student’s and the institution’s advantage because, the student gets the extra help that is required for them to feel comfortable about the material, and this is also much cheaper for the institution than hiring more professors to teach. Through methods like this and the fact that at many school professors make themselves available at certain times in order to answer questions, college students should be able to survive these unusually large class sizes.