Reducing the number of students in a classroom fails to improve the academic performance of the most disadvantaged students, at least the Asian ones, according to a study published by the International Journal of Science Education, which has collected data from more than 2,700 students from low-income families. income from Macau and Japan.
The Taizhou University study indicates that what makes the difference is not the number of teachers but their teaching quality, the possibility of using diverse methodology in the classroom, supporting students and maintaining a climate of good behavior. This is the guarantee that young people with the most difficulties achieve what the authors call “academic resilience.” That is, the ability of an individual to overcome obstacles and adapt to adverse environments and achieve good school performance.
“Small classes were not relevant to the resilience of students,” Professor Tao Jiang, lead author of the research, concludes in the study. By contrast, in Japan, large classes make disadvantaged students 1.2 times more likely to excel. But they are classes with a good climate, in which both the teacher and classmates show willingness for the entire class to progress. That is a teacher’s skill. “Instead of allocating resources to reduce ratios, it is more effective to invest in the professionalization of teachers,” recommends Jiang.
The researchers’ objective was threefold: What qualities does a student who starts out at a disadvantage due to their parents’ income have that stand out for their results? What classroom characteristics encourage vulnerable students to be resilient? Can they impact human and material resources, as well as the cultural climate of the school? Academic resilience is important, the study highlights, not only for people’s lives, but also reinforces multiple political, economic and social values.
The authors studied the qualities and characteristics of 1,594 15- and 16-year-old Japanese students from low-income families (in the lowest 25% of income) and their performance in scientific competition in PISA 2015. And 1,114 from Macau. The size of the classrooms in which they studied ranged from 15 to 50 students. PISA measures, in addition to performance in mathematics, language and science, discipline, school support, motivation and anxiety.
The participants were grouped into levels of resilience. A third showed a high level, a quarter, low, and the rest, medium.
Students with high resilience reflect motivation, like to participate in class, and have a positive perception of school and science studies. Other common characteristics are perseverance, the aspiration to do things well or the feeling of belonging to the school from which, the authors deduce, they are more likely to have the emotional and academic support of their classmates, making up for possible lacks of His parents. The negative factor is that they express high levels of anxiety regarding exams.
The study analyzes the role of the school. The ratios have little influence, but a climate of bad behavior does, which reduces the number of resilient people. Instead, they are elevated by (science) teachers who maintain discipline in the classroom and provide support.
In Japan, the predictor of resilience was greater in classrooms in which teaching methodologies based on cooperation between students prevailed. In Macau, with a greater Confucian culture that favors obedience, in master classes.
In this sense, the study points out the differences between Eastern and Western culture. In the first, students’ effort and obedience to teachers are more encouraged. Teachers prepare classes well to avoid uncertainty and promote cooperative learning.
“Western cultures accept uncertainty” as motivation, he says. Students who do well in this model, he continues, prefer practice to study, are willing to take on individual responsibilities, and tend to adapt better to research teaching.
Likewise, in the West, equality of power between teachers and students is promoted, allowing students to question teachers, according to the study. As a disadvantage, this means that students adapt less well to guided classes in which the instruction is to memorize.
