2011 Volume 8 Pages 1-10
The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of class size and small group learning on pupils' academic achievement by using Multilevel Models. Since 1950s to early 1990s, class sizes were reduced to 40 pupil classes. After the 1990s, instead of continuing to reduce class sizes, the Ministry of Education has adopted learning group systems to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio, for example, small group learning and Team-Teaching (TT). Do the class size and these new learning group systems have positive effect on the pupils' academic achievement? This is the theme of this research. Thirty-four elementary school principals and 843 pupils responded to the questionnaires and pupils took brief academic achievement tests for Japanese and Mathematics. This research focuses on the analysis on the effect of adopting teaching methods like small group learning on mathematic tests. The results like many former research findings suggest that small class size and small group learning have positive effect on pupils' academic achievement. To work small group learning effectively, it is necessary to arrange full-time teachers and to group pupils by the similar ability.
