Are class size differences related to pupils’ educational progress and classroom processes? Findings from the Institute of Education Class Size Study of children aged 5-7 Years



language, special needs status, and gender. Information was collected on classes in
terms of class size (as on the school register, and also in terms of the number of
children in the class at a given point in the term - called ‘experienced’ class size), and
on adults present, in terms of three categories: whether they were teachers, staff other
than teachers, and other adults (including, and mainly, parents). Information on teachers
in the study was collected from self completed questionnaires and comprised: teacher
age, number of years of teaching experience, number of years in the current school, non-
contact time, professional training in teaching reading, language and mathematics), and
self perceptions of stress and satisfaction with their job (see Blatchford, Martin,
Moriarty, Bassett and Goldstein, 2002).

Children’s Attainments

Information was collected when pupils entered school by means of the Avon
Reception Entry Assessment (1996), which covers literacy and mathematics and
comprises information from teacher ratings, based on classroom observations, and
tasks completed by children. At the end of the Reception year, the Literacy Baseline
component of the Reading Progress Test (2000) and a specially designed mathematics
test were administered. At the end of Year 1 the children were given the Young’s
Group Reading and Mathematics tests, and at the end of Year 2 Government set
National Curriculum assessments (SATs) were coded using a specially adapted
protocol, which captured raw scores on a continuous scale (rather than the restricted
range of levels used by the Government and schools when reporting results, which are
of limited value for research purposes). See Blatchford (in press) for more information
on the measures used.

Within class groupings

A classroom mapping procedure devised by Blatchford, Baines, Kutnick and Martin
(2001) was used. This involved teachers, at the given time in the school day,
identifying the number and size of groups in the class; the composition of the group in
terms of its ability level and whether it was comprised of friends; whether adults were
with the group; the type of interaction between children (e.g., whether working alone
but on the same task, or working together to produce an end product); and the
curriculum area and type of task being worked on. Taking the data on all classrooms
resulted in 672 classes in 311 schools, and a data base comprising 3157 groupings in
all. More details on the methods used can be found in Blatchford, Baines, Kutnick and
Martin (2001) and Kutnick, Blatchford and Baines (2002).

In order to complement the numerical results we also collected more open-ended
interpretive information on groups. There were two sources of data: case studies
involving semi-structured interviews with teachers, which were structured around a
number of key areas, and questionnaires completed by class teachers at the end of
each school year (see below). Quotes from interviews and questionnaires were
selected to represent and complement the numerical results.

Teacher estimates of time allocation

Teaching time allocation: Data came from termly questionnaires completed by class
teachers. They were given a pre-selected set of activities and asked for a given half
day session to estimate the time in minutes spent on each activity. The activities were
grouped into two broad types: first, teaching activities (teaching/working with the
whole class, working with an individual child, and working with a group of children);



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