Small Teaching Class [9]

Some people believe that small class teaching is a solution to the ever declining English standard in HK and the problem of redundant teachers. You have just attended a talk.

Better late than never
Reducing class size is the dream of most teachers and students. They are calling on small-sized class teaching and in their mind, it is the ideal mode of teaching, especially true for the dramatic drop of birth rate and employment rate in this modern city. The education officers, however, do not share the same perception with teachers and students.

Teachers who pleading for reducing class size strongly believe the configuration will satisfy both psychological and physiological need for both teachers and students. The tradition mode of teaching is mainly chalk and talk by the teachers. Just imagine in a class of 40 students, how can a single teacher deal with all students all by oneself? Teachers always complain about the great workload while coping with the piles of assignments. It takes them more than several hours a day to mark them and obviously they have insufficient time to provide individual students with feedback of their work. The heavy burden, therefore, upsets teachers and this definitely affects the knowledge acquisition of students. ‘ Fair participation among students in small-sized class is unrealistic.’ a teacher in the talk admitted.

Students are expected to be the one who benefits most from the small-sized class. Students will have more opportunity to voice their opinion during the lessons, thus boost the interactions with peers and teachers. Individual students are capable to receive more attention, as well as more assistance from the teacher. The positive effect on under-achievers defies expectation. They are motivated and encouraged in class. Undoubtedly, their achievement will be much better than their counterparts in large-sized classes. ‘ The precious experience I got out of small-sized class is that I can recognize my contribution in class directly impacts my peers and it give us the incentive to invest our time in daily learning activities. ‘ a student gave his comment in the talk.

Although small classes yield more teacher attention per student, opponents of small classes criticize its ineffectiveness because they believe that the number of students in classes bears little impact on how students perform academically and behaviourally. Besides, the feasibility of small-sized class is attributed to financial burden of hiring more teachers, “ The expense of public money have to be considered thoroughly. It’s not a wise decision to pool most of it to small-sized classes.’’ One education officer shared his view on the talk. He also pointed out that reducing class size is not the only way to improve learning and teaching. School curriculum and available resources are more important.

Students are our future leaders. Cultivation of elite individuals is the common goal for everyone in this talented-thirst society. Introducing small-sized class education is believed to be the most direct route towards the goal. It is worth to invest with our future leaders now. However, compromise always has to be made between the demand of large sum of money and the perfect picture we dream of. At this stage, the government is urged to think of what kinds of schools should own the first priority to undergo small-sized class teaching and set clear steps of introducing the system thoroughly in Hong Kong. After all, late is always better than none.