Teachers - a question

[StarlightMcKenzie]

If you taught just 15 children with the same resources that you currently have, would those 15 children progress at twice the rate or more?

I mean if you split the class into two batches of 15 and taught each every other week or every other month or whatever, would they progress faster?

What would they be doing in the week that you weren't teaching them?

Isn't she really just asking would children be better off in small classes? (Some teachers already have small classes.)

'What would they be doing in the week that you weren't teaching them?'

Dunno. Same as they do at weekends when you aren't teaching them I guess.

In my house they'd doing a mixture of sqabbling whilst I MNed, doing some extra-curriculum learning, going on outings and round friends houses and making things. Probably as they got older it would include a significant amount of computer time.

I think younger children need regular input so a week off phonics ... no, wouldn't work
I have a bit of an odd situation in that I have a very small reception class, together with nursery, so I do end up splitting them up for input regularly, but was in a class of 30 Y1s last year and they made good progress, because the work was differentiated. For one morning a week half the class went to forest school and I could concentrate on addressing needs of the other half, and this was quite useful. Every day? no, I don't see the benefit.

No - they wouldn't progress at twice the rate. I am in a well resourced school working with classes of 30. I differentiate to enable myself to work with children with similar needs at different points during the day. A class of 20 would be fantastic for allowing for more 1-1 interactions but they wouldn't make twice the progress.

No they would progress more slowly IMHO.

Is it the regular practice that they need? Would it work if it was 15 children each for half the school day?

They still wouldn't make twice as much progress IMO

I guess when and where it works, teachers can just strategies for keeping 15 children occupied on something to practice whilst the other 15 are taught!, instead of sending 15 home?

If they are just using "holding" activities they may as well send the children home

I didn;t mean they would be being 'held'. I assumed that the teacher would shedule either a learning break or something to practise that required less input for a bit. Is that not what happens?

I know NOTHING about classroom management or teaching practice and am in awe of how it all might work. I also suspect it isn't especially an efficient way of teaching although some teachers will be a lot better at it than others.

After all, 30 children to one teacher is based on the number of soldiers that an officer could command for drill, and education had moved away from drill as well as there being no 'educational' basis for this number in a classroom.

30 only applies in infant classes and is a relatively new limit. Only a few years ago reception classes of 36 or more with one teacher were common. In many other countries classes are much much larger

Really? Do they 'embrace inclusion' in the way we do over here though?

Japan has one of the largest class sizes ...inclusion fewer pupils attend special schools than in the UK and many pupils are in mainstream schools however many are supported in special classes for at least part of the time.

Managing the learning of 15 children is far easier than managing 30 pupils. In this day and age all pupils have to have individual targets. It's so much easier to drive learning in a smaller class and I have experience in both settings. Children will inevitably make more progress if the teacher only has half the number to teach, provided they have a good teacher! However, this would not work if pupils had a week on, week off input!

Double the progress?
Personally I think 15 is too small a number

I think regardless of the class size it depends on the ability of the teacher really dd has struggled in a class of sixteen and thrived in a class of thirty six purely because of the teacher she had. The class of 16 had two ft TAs and the class of 36 had 3 TAs.