Teachers (And Students) Benefit from Smaller Class Sizes

The Supreme Court’s ruling provides room for students to grow properly

Our public education system needs significant reform, and few solutions can offer the immediate benefit of individualized education. Having fewer students in class would allow teachers to focus more on each individual child, understand their educational needs, and tailor instructions accordingly. This extra investment would help students that are struggling to learn.

Recently, B.C. teachers achieved a milestone towards this end when The Supreme Court of Canada overturned a decision made by the BC Court of Appeal. The ruling concluded that the province did, in fact, violate teachers’ rights to negotiate their class sizes and the number of children with special needs in each classroom in their collective agreement.

“Small classes really involve students,” wrote Robert Kennedy in an article published by Boarding School Review. “[They] surround students with attention and encouragement. Because students learn in different ways, the teacher can take all the time he needs to present the material being taught in a variety of ways appropriate to his small class of students.”

Large classrooms fosters an environment where students have to compete for the teacher’s attention, whereas lasses with fewer students foster a sense of teamwork. Students are more connected to each other in a smaller class, which presents an opportunity for them to form a team of curious, like-minded individuals.

Providing the teacher with enough time to meet our expectations is only fair. They need to have the opportunity to not only assess how a student learns, but also enough time to present the lesson in a way that matches the student’s preferred learning style.

Kennedy also claims that, “students really do learn more when classes are small. They learn faster. They progress through the material more quickly. They soon develop confidence to express their ideas and opinions without fear of scorn and retribution from their peers.”

If nothing else, a classroom is supposed to be a “climate for learning.” Kwantlen Polytechnic University effectively creates this climate by limiting class sizes to roughly 30 students, and most of our classes don’t even have that many students.

Consideration must also be given to the number of special needs students present in each classroom. While individualized education allows for this, it’s important to recognize that a teacher has to invest more time in one of these students than someone who prefers one learning style to another.

Students with special needs must be dispersed throughout the student body instead of being bundled together in a single classroom. This would allow teachers to focus on closely monitoring and managing one or two special needs students at a time.

The idea of individualized education does indeed have a visceral appeal. That should inform our judgment and help us recognize that if teacher are to perform at the level we expect, then it’s our responsibility as citizens and as students to give them the time and resources to do so.