Study on the Educational Effects of Class Size Reduction

Research Project

Project/Area Number	11680185
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Science education
Research Institution	Mie University
Principal Investigator	ODA Kijun Mie University, Faculty of Education, Professor, 教育学部, 教授 (90024489)
Project Period (FY)	1999 – 2000
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2000)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,100,000) Fiscal Year 2000: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000) Fiscal Year 1999: ¥1,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000)
Keywords	class-size / teaching method / group oriented / クラスサイズ / 30人学級 / 学級編成 / 教員配置 / 学校規模
Research Abstract	In Japan, Elementary schools and middle schools have many savior problems. For example there are many children who have no-interest in study and it's very difficult for them to listen in to the lecture in classroom. Japanese students of middle schools are very high in achievement level of math compared with the level of other countries, but the ratio of students who are interested in to learn math and natural science are less than 50 percents and the ratios are the lowest in the world. In Japan one of the biggest Educational problems in Elementary and Middle schools is the Class Size Reduction from 40 students to 30 students in a class. The purpose of this research were as follows, 1)To investigate the best class-size (number of students) of elementary schools and middle schools (subjects were teachers of elementary and middle schools, and students who wanted to be teachers) 2) To collect the opinions (reasons) why the class size should be reduced less than 40 students in a class, etc. From the research we get the following results. 1) Teachers and students think that the class of 40 students is to big to teach all of students carefully. 2)Teachers and students think that the best class size is 20 to 30 students. 3) The most popular teaching style in Japan is the group-oriented teaching method in which teachers teach students at the same time, and they have no-ideas to teach students individually.