EFFECTIVE TEACHING IN REDUCED SIZE CLASSES: INTERPRETING THE 1999-2000 SAGE EVALUATION QUALITATIVE FINDINGS
The section of 1999-2000Results of the Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) ProgramEvaluation that compares the teaching of more effective reduced class sizeteachers with the teaching of less effective reduced class size teachers hasbeen misrepresented in several reviews of our work. These reviewsconclude that the findings support what the Milwaukee Journal Sentinelcalled a “conservative-sounding recipe” for teaching, one that emphasizes drilland practice concerning basic skills and other direct instruction practices.
Although more effectivereduced class size teachers stress the learning of basic skills and fundamentalknowledge, and they use drill and practice as well as many other similartechniques, these elements alone do not adequately capture the differencebetween these two sets of teachers. The main difference between thehigher and lower achieving classrooms is the quantity and type ofindividualization used by the teacher.
Individualization in anacademic achievement context pervades the teaching of the more effectivereduced class size teachers. The well-structured classrooms and carefullyplanned lessons that these teachers implement make its use possible. Throughout the day, effective reduced class size teachers constantly requireeach student to reveal his or her comprehension, thinking, and ability, andthey constantly react to each student by giving critique, advice, evaluation,direction, and other kinds of help.
Less effective reducedclass size teachers also individualize, but because they use student and lessonmanagement practices that result in less classroom control and studentattention, they individualize less. Also, their individualization oftentakes the form of permitting students to choose activities for themselves andpursue topics or problems of personal interest without systematically relatingthose topics to an overall academic purpose.
Persistent and extensiveindividualization where student articulation and teacher critique are dominantfeatures is generally not part of the direct instruction prescription forteaching. The type of individualization used by effective reduced classsize teachers focuses on student construction of understanding rather thanstudent reproduction of answers, which is the focus of directinstruction. Further, this central feature of effective reduced classsize teaching cannot take place in a regular size classroom to an extent likelyto have a major impact on learning. The application of direct instructiontechniques as an alternative to reducing class size is not supported by ourresearch.
(Questions about thisstatement should be directed to Alex Molnar, 414-229-4592.)