CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
As school population increases, class size also increases; the performance of students becomes an issue. According to Dior (2000), class size has
become a phenomena often mentioned in the educational literature as an influence on students feelings and achievement on administration, quality and school budget, in his words he noted, that class size is almost an administrative decision over which lecturers have little or no contest of most researchers start from the assumption that size of class would prove a significant determinant of the degree of success of students. In fact, with the exception of a few, many studies have reported that in an ideal situation, class size in itself appears to be an important factor.The first issue that calls for immediate clarification is what number of students should be described as a small group. In describing a small group, Brag(2000) observed that they have few lecturers with small pools of talents offer limited range of subjects, characteristically finding it hard to justify costly investment on libraries, their students lack composition. The description appears to be an anti type of what obtains in large group.
Large school class size on the other hand are often impersonal, having broader curricular with lecturer being given wider support, while students may suffer disciplinary problems as lecturers cannot get to know their students easily. They find it not easy to stream students according to ability while commitment to work may not stand a taste of time.
Hancock,
Terence M. (2005): Class size is an important factor with
respect to academic performance of students. There is a consensus among
researchers and educational scholars that, student’s achievement decreases as
class size increases. The effect of class- size on cognitive achievement has
been debated and researched for many years, this has been inconclusive. The
medium through which the attainment of individuals and the nation’s educational
goals can be achieved is learning. Learning outcomes have become a phenomenon
of interest to all
and this account for the reason why scholars have been working hard to unravel
factors that militate against good academic performance (Aremu & Sokan,
2002). This phenomenon has been variedly referred to in literature as academic
achievement, or scholastic functioning. Academic achievement of learners has
attracted attention of scholars, parents, policy –makers and planners.
Among such factors is the issues of ‘’class size’’. Adeyemi (2008) defined class size as an educational tool that can be described as an average number of students per class in a school, while Hoffman (2002) described it as the number of students per teacher in a class. Kedney (2005) described it as a tool that can be used to measure performance of the education system. A lot of argument has gone on the impact of class size on performance, some fingering over-bloated class size as the main factor responsible for falling standard of education, most especially in the elementary or secondary level of education in Nigeria, however others see this as mere coincidence seeing other factors as being responsible.
The number of students in a class has the potential to affect how much is learned in a number of different ways. For example, it could affect how students interact with each other the level of social engagement. This may result, for example, in more or less noise and disruptive behavior, which in turn affect the kinds of activities the teacher is able to promote. It could affect how much time the teacher is able to focus on individual students and their specific needs rather than on the group as a whole.
The Meaning and Measurement of “Class Size”
Class size is not the same thing as the pupil/teacher ratio. In-deed, it is quite different. The calculation of a pupil/teacher ratio typically includes teachers who spend all or part of their day as administrators, librarians, special education support staff, itinerant teachers, or other roles outside the classroom. Thus, pupil/teacher ratio is a global measure of the human resources brought to bear, directly and indirectly, on children’s learning.
Class size refers to the actual number of pupils taught by a teacher at a particular time. Thus, the pupil/teacher ratio is always lower than the average class size, and the discrepancy between the two can vary, depending on teachers’ roles and the amount of time teachers spend in the classroom during the school day. From an administrative or economic viewpoint, pupil/teacher ratio is very important, because it is closely related to the amount of money spent per child. However, from a psychological view point in terms of how students learn—what matters is the number of students who are physically present interacting among themselves and with the teacher. The present paper focuses mainly on class size, because it is a more direct measure of the teaching resources brought to bear on a child’s development.
Statement of the Problem
Business education studies have this assumption that the size of the class would prove a significant determinant the degree of success of the student. Many studies reported that under ideal situation class size in itself appears to be an important factor. The first issue that calls for immediate clarification is what should be described as a small group. However the report by some researchers on business Education students revealed that the size of school and length of attendance have little or no effect upon people’s achievement when educational opportunities are compared. It is equally accepted that lecturers generally have a definite preference with size of the school in which they wish to teach, and that the larger the size, the lower the level of student’s achievement would tend to be. (Stike, 2008) Wolbeing (2009), in their observation have it that a significant and consistent relationship exist in the achievement of student of small classes of about 1-50 students that obtained higher scores in Business Education task than their counterparts in larger classes.
Expressing a divergent view Bolton (2005), found that there was no significant differences in post test achievement scores between large classes and small classes. He concluded that larger is sometimes better this development shows that the existing empirical studies on class size (lecturers-students ratio) and academic achievements mixed.
Therefore, the present researchers been aware of this non homogeneity of the impact of class-size (lectures-students ratio) on students’ academic achievement in Business Education among the previous researchers were therefore, motivated to re-examine the issue using another statistics measure thereby contribution to knowledge base.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of class size on academic performance of Business education students in Alan Ikoku College of Education Owerri, Imo state. In specific term the study is to;
1. Ascertain the lecturer-students ratio in Business Education.
2. Ascertain how student class size is related to academic performance of Business Education students.
3. Ascertain how employment of adequate lecturers will help reduce larger class size in order to influence the academic performance of the students.
Research Questions
Based on the above stated problems, the following research question should be investigated.
1. What is the lecturer-students ratio in business education?
2. What is the relationship between students’ class size and their academic performance in business education?
3. To what extent can the employment of adequate lecturers help to reduce large class size and its academic performance on students?
Significance of the Study
This study on class size and academic performance of the Business Education students in Alvan Ikoku federal College of Education in Imo state Owerri will be beneficial to the class lecturer, this is because, it will help the lecturer to minimize the students’ place of learning (classroom) problems like examination malpractice, noise making, truancy and cultism etc.
The study also will help educational Business makers to make “an informed decision that concerns teaching and learning. The study will be beneficial to the learners because, it will help them to learners because, it will help than to know how the class size will affect their performance in the lecture hall.
The study will also help or guide effectiveness for Business organization firms, Business men and women, society, individual and the class size of academic performance in business education finally, the study will help the researchers to unearth other impacts of class size that were not mentioned by the earlier researchers.
Scope of the Study
The scope of this study is impact of class size on the academic performance on Business Education students in Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education.
The study is focused on Business Education students in Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education.
0 comments:
Post a Comment