Comments on: New Zealand’s education system, let’s fix it until it breaks

By: Steve Dunsmore

Steve Dunsmore — Thu, 17 May 2012 10:58:00 +0000

It is really quite simple; ask the professionals (i.e. those in daily contact with students) Smaller classes allow better daily personal interactions with students hence higher Hattie approved ’effect size’. Ignore what you will.

http://www.ppta.org.nz/index.php/resources/pptanews/305-ppta-newsapr09-hattie-review

The law of the ‘bleedin’ obvious’ comes in to play here.

Smaller class sizes = better overall outcomes.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 08:56:00 +0000

Hi Morgan
Thanks for this post. I thought it was only those working in education were wondering why a treasury expert would be so much more qualified to talk about education than those toiling away in the classroom. The cynic in me sees this a plan to fire the ‘top’ 10% of teachers , fire the ‘bottom’ 10% and make the rest have greater class sizes and current salary in exchange for not being fired.

What worries me is that we will spend so much time trying identifying who the good teachers are we will lose sight of what good teachers do and share that expertise with everyone to bring up the average.

Stephanie

By: morgannichol

morgannichol — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:38:00 +0000

That’s interesting, thanks Giovanni. I suppose that if you’re not going to interact at all, but just deliver a monologue, then class size is essentially limitless. That seems very old fashioned though, doesn’t it? Might be a good way to instil authoritarian values into people though.

In fact, why not go further, and just have a giant screen on one wall and play out pre-recorded lectures. We could call it Big Teacher. Could operate in 24 hour shifts, cycle the customers (sorry, I mean students) through, never let a seat get cold. Anything less would be so terribly inefficient.

Now I really want to see if anyone has compared Chinese, Taiwanese, and New Zealand educational performance, but I’ve got to make a pesky podcast.

By: Giovanni Tiso

Giovanni Tiso — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:26:00 +0000

The large class size nonsense comes from some Asian education systems (China, Taiwan – but the Italian one wasn’t all that different when I was a boy) in which having very large classes is compatible with high academic achievement. But that’s so long as children are made to sit on rows of desk and are not allowed to talk, and they all listen to the teacher. And yes, the results are real. But they come at the expense of other aspects of our education system that people are going to want to hold on to.