Large-Sized Classes

FAUZIA SHAMIM AND HYWEL COLEMAN

­The Intellectual and Social Context of Large-Sized Classes

Questions about the numbers of learners in classrooms have been discussed for
more than a century, but many issues remain unresolved. One reason for this is a
continuing lack of clarity in terminology. Furthermore, the contexts in which large
classes occur and the reasons for their occurrence are varied and complex.

Terminology
Class sizes vary tremendously both between and within national education sys-
tems: primary classes ranging from 5 to 60 pupils have been reported in Malaysia;
secondary classes as small as 14 and as large as 167 have been observed in Guinea;
and a study of remedial English teaching in Nigerian universities found between
5 and 200 students per class. There are also reports of over 300 participants per
class in a yobiko (cram school for university entrance) in Japan, approximately 500
students in a university English class in Kenya and as many as 5,000 students in a
class at an open-access university in Thailand. Thus, there can be no universally
accepted numerical definition of a “large-sized class”; a large class, then, is one
which is perceived by the teacher teaching it or the learners learning in it to be large.
●● The terms “large-size(d) class” (USA) and “large class” (rest of the English-
speaking world) are problematic because they are subjective. In some countries
the term “large class” is thought to refer to the dimensions of the classroom
rather than the number of occupants. In Francophone countries in Africa the
terms “les classes en sureffectif” (classes oversupplied with learners) and “les
classes à effectif pléthorique” (classes with large numbers of learners) are often
used, but these are equally problematic.
●● “Teacher-learner (T:L) ratio” refers to the number of pupils compared to the num-
ber of teachers in an education system. Some countries have regulations concern-
ing minimum and maximum T:L ratios, but the theoretical foundation of these
regulations is usually unclear. There are often considerable differences between

The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching, First Edition.

Edited by John I. Liontas (Project Editor: Margo DelliCarpini).
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
DOI: 10.1002/9781118784235.eelt0633

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 2 Large-Sized Classes

official teacher-learner ratios and the numbers of learners actually observed in

classrooms: the reality may be smaller or larger than the official statistics suggest.
For this reason, T:L ratios provide an unsafe basis for policy decisions (Coleman,
in press). The situation is made more complicated if two classes—each with its
own teacher—have to study in the same classroom at the same time.
●● “Classroom density” refers to the number of learners per square meter in the
classroom. Some countries regulate the maximum acceptable density, but
again the rationale for the number specified is often unclear. However, it is
clear that the mobility of learners and teachers decreases as classroom density
increases.
●● “Crowding,” in contrast, is the subjective perception of participants that there
are too many people in the space available. It is difficult to predict the point at
which participants begin to experience crowding: spectators at a sport or music
event may be densely packed but this can contribute to the excitement of the
situation, whereas crowding in public transport may raise stress levels. Also,
the study of proxemics tells us that different cultures tolerate different degrees
of physical proximity between people.
●● “Class size” is a neutral term which can be used in all contexts and, for that
reason, is preferred by researchers in the field.

Contexts and Causes
Large-size classes are found in both under-resourced educational settings in Asia,
Africa, and Latin America as well as in well-resourced settings in Asia (such as
Hong Kong and Japan), the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia.
Moreover, large-sized classes can be found in the teaching of a wide range of sub-
jects, including liberal arts and sciences and even professional subjects such as law
and engineering. Additionally, the phenomenon of large classes is prevalent at all
levels of education from early years through primary and secondary schools to
tertiary education. In the case of English language teaching, large classes are
widely reported in Asia and Africa, but there is no mention of them in the United
Kingdom or North America in the literature. This may be because ESL/ESOL
classes in well-resourced contexts are mainly provided for minority or interna-
tional students and have a focus on personalized learning. The phenomenon of
large-sized classes is therefore widespread around the world, except for ESL/
ESOL classes in some well-resourced contexts.
The reasons for classes having the number of learners that they do are complex
and context-dependent. They include the following, all of which are influenced to
some extent by policy decisions made by national governments, local education
authorities, and individual schools:
●● National development: nations with “very high” and “high” human develop-
ment—as defined by the United Nations’ Human Development Index—spend
more on education in absolute terms than do countries with “medium” and
“low” human development. The more highly developed nations also tend to

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 Large-Sized Classes 3

allocate a higher proportion of their national budgets on education. This has a

direct impact on their ability to train and recompense teachers, build schools,
and provide other resources.
●● Convention: assumptions about the suitability of particular class sizes for cer-
tain age groups and educational levels (as noted above) and for teaching par-
ticular subjects are often very powerful; these assumptions are sometimes
based on research findings (see “Relationship between class size and learning”
below) but very often they have no theoretical foundation.
●● Physical capacity of classrooms (which in turn have often been designed based
on the same assumptions about numbers appropriate for particular levels of
education), for example, 40 students in state schools in Pakistan (Shamim, 1993).
●● Availability of teachers: classes are sometimes combined if there are not enough
teachers.
●● Reputation of individual institutions and teachers: the most popular state
schools often have higher enrolments than other schools. This is true of the
most popular teachers as well.
●● School enrolment: larger classes tend to occur in larger schools.
●● School location: schools in urban areas generally have larger classes than those
in rural areas.
●● Pupils repeating years: some education systems “pass” or “fail” pupils each
year; those who fail then have to repeat the year.
Another important factor that impacts on class size is the demand for education.
This often increases very rapidly, but education systems need time to train and
recruit new teachers and to build new schools. Demand in turn can be influenced
by birth rate, population movements (urbanization, migration, civil unrest, war),
growing awareness of the value of education (in particular, increasing understand-
ing of girls’ right to be educated) and parents’ desire to keep their children in
school for as long as possible so as to avoid early marriage or involvement in drug
dealing, smuggling, criminality, and gang activity.
A factor that has contributed to reduction in class sizes in certain contexts is
research findings. This is especially the case in the United States where teachers’
unions have campaigned successfully for smaller classes, drawing on the findings
of several research studies in the 1990s (discussed below).

­Major Dimensions in the Treatment of Class Size

Five major dimensions of class size are the way that teachers perceive the size of
their classes, how they think about teaching and learning in larger and smaller
sized classes, how classroom processes in larger classes can be described and
understood, how large classes can be managed to facilitate learning, and whether
there is any relationship between the number of people in a class and the amount
of learning that takes place in it.

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 4 Large-Sized Classes

How Teachers Perceive the Size of Their Classes

Although “large” and “small” classes cannot be defined simply in terms of num-
bers, it is useful to investigate how teachers perceive class size. During the 1980s
and 1990s, extensive research was carried out by the Lancaster-Leeds Language
Learning in Large Classes Research (L5CR) project in Indonesia, Japan, Madagascar,
Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, Turkey, and elsewhere. It was found that teachers’
responses to the question “What is a large class?” depend, to some extent, on the
number of learners that they normally teach and the number of learners in the
largest class they have ever taught. As experienced class size increases, the teach-
er’s perception of the number of learners that constitute a “large class” also tends
to increase. The conclusion reached by the L5CR project was that teachers do not
share a universal conception of the numbers of learners in “small,” “ideal” and
“large” classes.
However, later research showed that only a third of variation in teachers’ percep-
tions of the point at which a class becomes large can be explained by the class sizes
they have experienced. Other variables also play a role in influencing perceptions
of class size. These include: the numbers of learners in neighboring classes and
institutions, several physical factors such as the space in the classroom, and the
amount and availability of resources vis-à-vis the number of students (density and
crowding), several learner and teacher-related factors such as teacher ­competency,
and learners’ age and grade level, classroom processes including teacher–learner
and learner–learner interaction, the nature of the subject being taught, and, increas-
ingly, teachers’ aims to encourage learner participation and active learning in the
classroom as manifested in the assessment and feedback strategies used as well as
management of teaching-learning in the classroom (see Figure 1).
Figure 1 presents a set of variables without attempting to determine directional-
ity or relationships among them. The number of students is the only variable that
is easy to quantify and, therefore, normally the first thing noticed and talked about
in any discussion of large classes. However, other factors which are more opaque
require careful observation, particularly in terms of their interaction with other
variables, which, in turn, affect teaching and learning in the classroom. Further
research is needed to explore the interaction of different variables with class size.
Another concept that needs further investigation is that of teachers’ “threshold
levels” for class size (Shamim, 1993). It is hypothesized that teachers have varying
threshold levels for class size, which in turn, can influence their decisions to use
“core” and “enhancing” activities in their classes. For example, a teacher might be
comfortable with using group work with 30 students in a spacious classroom with
movable chairs (an enhancing activity), while another teacher may find managing
group work exhausting or unproductive in a similar or different context. As a
result, she may decide to use only teacher-centered and “core” activities that focus
on covering the syllabus and preparing learners for exams. Similarly, some teach-
ers may feel comfortable lecturing to 400 or more students using a PowerPoint
presentation in an auditorium, while others may find this kind of large-class teach-
ing too depersonalized and ineffective for the teaching-learning of English.

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 Large-Sized Classes 5

Class size in
Physical
neighboring
factors
classes

Learner- Teacher-
related related
factors factors

Subject Classroom Student

being processes numbers
taught

Assessment Classroom
and feedback management

Figure 1  Factors affecting teachers’ perception of class size.

To conclude, class size can be seen as one of several contextual variables in

teachers’ perceptions. It interacts with and upon a number of other variables or
mediating factors in the context.

How Teachers Think About Teaching and Learning in Larger

and Smaller Sized Classes
A comparative study of teachers’ and learners’ perspectives on teaching and learn-
ing in large classes reveals a number of similarities among teachers but some
­heterogeneity in the views of learners in different settings.
There seems to be an agreement among teachers that large classes pose a num-
ber of challenges for effective teaching and learning. The findings of a “difficulties
questionnaire” designed by the L5CR project resonate with reports from teachers
in different parts of the world irrespective of contextual differences in terms of
resource provision, student characteristics, grade level, and the subject taught (see
Shamim et al., 2007; Mulryan-Kyne, 2010).
Major challenges reported by teachers in teaching large-sized classes can be
summarized as follows:
●● giving individual attention and personalized learning;
●● teacher-student and peer interaction;
●● student engagement, time-on-task, and active learning;

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 6 Large-Sized Classes

●● physical aspects such as teacher and student mobility in the classroom, audibil-
ity, visibility of the teacher/board (particularly where the teacher is the only
resource in the classroom);
●● maintaining discipline/controlling off-task behavior;
●● teacher’s physical stress and exhaustion due to increased workload (e.g., main-
taining the attendance register);
●● time, for example, for entering and leaving the classroom;
●● organizing productive pair and group work;
●● assessment and providing feedback;
●● high level of noise;
●● inadequate resources for teaching, e.g., the number of textbooks available in
comparison with the number of students;
●● planning and course management (in higher education, in particular, with
course teams).
A few studies have focused on teachers’ perspectives on learner behavior in large-
class teaching. Learners are reported by their teachers to suffer from passivity and
anonymity, leading to disengagement and absenteeism in large classes.
Research on learners’ own perspectives on learning in large classes is relatively
limited. Three doctoral studies at the University of Leeds between 1995 and 2000,
using data from Kenya, Malaysia, and Thailand, suggested, counter-intuitively,
that studying in larger classes, particularly in higher education in under-resourced
settings, may have a beneficial effect as it encourages learners to develop inde-
pendent and cooperative learning skills. This finding has been confirmed more
recently by a study in Syria (Ajjan, 2012). In contrast, secondary-level learners in
Pakistan experience discomfort in large classes (see below).

How Classroom Processes in Larger Classes

Can be Described and Understood
Teachers everywhere feel convinced that large classes present a number of prob-
lems for teaching and learning. Hence, it is important to identify why class size is
perceived to have an effect—whether positive or negative—by examining teacher-
learner behaviors and classroom processes in large (and smaller sized) classes. The
longitudinal CSPAR project in the United Kingdom investigated a number of
classroom processes such as teacher-learner and learner-learner interaction within
groups across selected primary and secondary schools in the United Kingdom. It
was concluded that “small classes may be better academically but not necessarily
socially” (Blatchford, 2012, p. 540).
Shamim’s (1993) qualitative study of large ESL classes in secondary schools in
Pakistan was probably the first comprehensive investigation in the field of TESOL
in an under-resourced context. The aim was to understand what happens in large
and smaller sized classes through open-ended classroom observations of and
semi-structured interviews with teachers and learners. A major finding was that,
while teachers’ behavior did not change in terms of the methodology they used in
their varied size ESL classes, the teachers were likely to use more “enhancing”

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 Large-Sized Classes 7

System demands Teacher’s own Teacher’s own

ideals theories

Learners’
competence, Theories
Achievement of
expectations, of the
local adaptation
experiences, profession
learning styles

Physical and Sociocultural Parental and

economic context other lay
context theories

Figure 2  The achievement of local adaptation in classroom events (Coleman, 1996, p. 130).

activities in smaller classes. It was also found that location of the learners in a large
class, particularly if it was teacher-centered, influenced both interaction and learn-
ing opportunities: learners seated in the front row—who were therefore closer to
the teacher—were in the “action zone.” Meanwhile learners at the back of the class
found themselves out of the action zone; this limited their opportunities for inter-
action with the teacher as well as participation in other classroom activities
(Shamim, 1996).
Using data from a primary school in Sri Lanka and a university in Eritrea (both
with around 50 learners), Coleman (1996) has also attempted to understand why
classroom events are as they are when they involve large numbers of learners. He
shows how class size (one aspect of the physical context) interacts with seven other
elements. What happens in each large class is a “local adaptation” achieved by the
participants in that class (Figure 2).

Managing the Large Class

There is a long history of reported attempts to facilitate learning in large classes, to
minimize the burden on the teacher, or both. These reports have mostly been writ-
ten by practitioners rather than researchers and, in almost every case, they describe
ad hoc innovations which have been undertaken without reference to previous
efforts and which are not based on systematic contextual analysis.
A survey of 17 descriptions of large-class methodology from Egypt, Hong
Kong, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, the United Kingdom,
the United States, and elsewhere, covering a period of 150 years, found that the
approaches adopted could be grouped into plenary, interactive, and compromise
categories. The plenary approach is based on the assumption that large-class size
makes a teacher-centered method inevitable. The interactive approaches argue
that—however large a class is—interaction between learners is essential and, in
fact, the larger the class becomes the more important it is to take the burden off
the teacher and design learning processes around learner-learner interaction. The
compromise approaches, meanwhile, suggest that it may be necessary to retain

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 8 Large-Sized Classes

the plenary format, but that such sessions should be used only for purposes of
boosting motivation, maintaining group cohesion, and carrying out essential
­administrative matters; meanwhile the real learning takes place in non-conventional
contexts outside the classroom or lecture theater. It was concluded that the
­compromise approaches offer the greatest potential for future development (see also
Shamim, 2012).

Is There a Relationship Between the Number of People in a Class

and the Amount of Learning that Takes Place in it?
Intuitively, it seems reasonable to assume that teaching will become less effective
as the number of learners in a class increases. Attempts to measure the relationship
between the number of learners in a class and the amount of learning which occurs
have been made since at least the beginning of the 20th century. Overwhelmingly,
this research has been carried out in North America, driven either by administra-
tors’ search for efficiency (which would like more learners to be taught by fewer
teachers) or by teachers’ associations (which would like fewer learners taught
by more teachers). Typical approaches to research in this field are meta-analyses
of  previously published research, large-scale experimental studies, qualitative
studies, and longitudinal multi-method studies.
A series of publications in the 1970s and 1980s, based on a meta-analysis of 77 ear-
lier studies, claimed that there was unequivocal evidence that “reduced class-size can
be expected to produce increased academic achievement” and that major benefits are
gained when class size is reduced below 20. However, the authors later moderated
their earlier claims, suggesting that the effects are seen only in experimental classes
and not in naturally occurring contexts (Glass et al., 1982). Later still, the original data
were re-examined by a different researcher and it was found that significant differ-
ences in learning occur only when class size is reduced to three. In other words, it
does not matter how large a class is once it has four or more students in it.
The Tennessee State Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) experimental
study in the United States found unequivocal support for “small” classes of 13–17
compared to “large classes” of 21 in K-3 classes. Importantly, the findings indicated
that small classes were more beneficial for certain student populations such as minor-
ity students and students-at-risk (Finn & Achilles, 1990). However, a recent experi-
ment in Hong Kong schools found no significant difference between control and
experimental classes in terms of learners’ academic outcomes in small and large classes
created for this purpose. This was despite the fact that small-class teachers received
extensive professional development for small-class teaching (Galton & Pell, 2010).
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom a qualitative study of 48,000 primary class-
rooms and nearly 43,000 secondary classrooms between 1993 and 1995 concluded
that “no simple link exists between the size of the class and the quality of teaching
and learning within it” (Office for Standards in Education, 1995).
Subsequently, the longitudinal large-scale CSPAR project focused on investigat-
ing the effects of class size on academic attainment, teacher-learner behavior, and
classroom processes in classrooms in naturalistic settings (reception year to the

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 Large-Sized Classes 9

end of primary school) in the United Kingdom. (This longitudinal research was
later extended to 11–14 year olds in secondary school.) The CSPAR project was
different from the earlier class-size projects in the United States (e.g., STAR) in two
ways: first, instead of creating experimental small and large classes, it focused on
naturally occurring classes of different sizes ranging from 25 to 31 in different
schools; second, one of the major aims of the project was to investigate what hap-
pens in different size classes in terms of grouping, teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil
interaction, and other teacher-learner behaviors and classroom processes. The
CSPAR project used systematic classroom observation data to investigate class-
room interaction and student engagement and on-task behavior. The findings of
CSPAR, similar to the STAR project, favored smaller over larger classes.
Significantly, the findings indicated that the positive effects of smaller classes
could be explained in terms of greater teacher-student interaction as well as higher
levels of student engagement and on-task behavior. However, the “CSPAR study
was still essentially correlational in design, and so one cannot be exactly sure about
causal effect or direction” (Blatchford, 2012, p. 535).
In summary, the findings concerning the relationship between class size and
learning are often difficult to interpret, ambiguous, and contradictory. Moreover,
even if this research—mostly carried out in North America and to some extent in
Europe—had managed to generate convincing conclusions, its relevance for
developing countries—where classes are often much larger—would be question-
able. This research failed partly because of the impossibility of agreeing on defini-
tions of “large” and “small” and partly because class size is just one of the many
variables which impact on learning and teaching.

­Changes Over Time in the Treatment of Large Classes

Significant changes have occurred over time in research and development, and in
policy matters.

Research and Development
Research and development in the treatment of class size has suffered from five
weaknesses:
●● It has largely been atheoretical. No comprehensive theory or model has been
developed to guide research efforts in this area.
●● The definition of the units of analysis, i.e., “small,” “large,” and “very large”
has varied from study to study.
●● Earlier studies tended to treat class size as an independent variable. More
recently it has been recognized that class size is a contextual variable and that
it interacts with and upon other variables in the classroom. Consequently, more
sophisticated statistical models are required to study class-size effects.
●● Earlier studies also tended to employ a purely quantitative and over-simplistic
research design and related methodology.

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 10 Large-Sized Classes

●● Many experimental studies used artificially created “small” and “large” classes.
Inevitably, they were unable to provide insights into what happens in real
classes of different size.
Calls for alternatives to purely quantitative correlational investigations of the
effects of large classes have been made for more than half a century. The same
concerns motivated the non-experimental investigations of varied class sizes in
naturalistic settings by, for example, Shamim (1993) and the CSPAR project. But
research on the effects of classroom interventions for improving the teaching and
learning of English (or any other subject, for that matter) in large classes is still
rare. There have also been calls for teacher-led classroom research in large EFL/
ESL classes in developing countries (Shamim, 2012) and for a “third generation
of research that would systematically evaluate the effectiveness of selected peda-
gogical changes in small classes” (Blatchford, 2012, p. 548) in better resourced
contexts.

Policy Issues
Policy debates on class size have continued for a very long time and are still active,
particularly in well-resourced contexts. These debates are concerned with two
major issues: finding an optimal class size and the economics of reducing class size.
Several large-scale projects and meta-analyses of research have been undertaken
to identify an optimal class size for the school level. As indicated above, some of
these—mainly undertaken in the United States and Europe—have made a signifi-
cant contribution to our understanding of class-size effects. However, researchers
have not succeeded in identifying an “optimum” class size for different age and
grade levels in different contexts. Some recent studies in other well-resourced
countries such as Hong Kong and Japan have also been unable to find supporting
evidence for small classes as a desired policy option to improve student learning
outcomes and close the achievement gap among schools (for example, see
Akabayashi & Nakamura, 2014).
No large-scale project has been undertaken in the area of TESOL to inform policy
making. A noteworthy small-scale research initiative in this regard was undertaken
by KMUTT, a public university in Thailand. Under this initiative English depart-
ment faculty were encouraged to undertake research to address the various
­problems they were facing as a result of an increase in their class size. The aims
were to improve teaching-learning in large classes and to bring about a change in
class-size policy (Todd, 2006). However, this and similar small-scale studies, largely
undertaken by individual teachers or researchers, have had negligible influence on
policy making. More importantly, often large classes are masked under govern-
ment statistics on teacher-student ratios and are therefore an “invisible” difficult
circumstance, particularly in under-resourced settings (Coleman, in press).
Connected to the search for an optimum class size, the question of whether
reducing class size is an economically feasible education reform has engaged pol-
icy makers in well-resourced educational environments for many years. As noted
earlier, teachers consider large classes to be detrimental to quality teaching and

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 Large-Sized Classes 11

learning. However, advocates of educational reforms are skeptical about reducing

class size as it is a very expensive step to take and its benefits are uncertain.
The massive class-size reduction program that took place in California and sev-
eral other states in the United States, following widely acclaimed research which
purported to show the benefits of small classes, has now been eliminated because
small classes have not achieved the expected results. Finally, if there is little evi-
dence that achievement, academic motivation, or the quality of instruction are
improved by smaller classes, then attempts to cut class size are counterproductive,
due to the expense involved. In fact, policy makers are now considering other
alternatives to class-size reduction to increase student learning outcomes.
Reducing class size is not even an option for consideration in under-resourced
educational settings. Hence, there is little discussion about this in policy docu-
ments in these contexts. In fact, where student numbers are growing with reduced
resources, adding a few more learners to a class seems to be an easy option for
policy makers.

­Current Emphases in Large Classes

While several research-based insights are now available into what happens in
small and large classes in terms of teacher-learner behavior and classroom pro-
cesses, research into effective pedagogy for small- and large-sized classes is still
limited. However, numerous descriptions of strategies for dealing with challenges
in teaching English in large-sized classes can be found in the literature. There is
also increasing interest in the implications for initial teacher education and teacher
development.

Problems and Solutions
Proposals for innovation focus on providing solutions to identified problems in
large classes. The proposed solutions have tended to fall into three categories: ad
hoc suggestions, ecological approaches, and the deriving of principles from care-
ful study of actual classroom practice (also see Shamim, 2012).
Ad hoc approaches include published guidelines for large-class teaching and
teachers’ accounts of how they used one or more strategies to address large-class
problems. These are numerous. An example is the advice to teachers to use group
work to increase opportunities for learning in large classes (see Shamim et  al.,
2007). However, the time, effort, and skills required by a teacher to set up and
manage group work effectively within the constraints such as fixed benches,
crowded classrooms, and high noise levels have dissuaded many teachers from
adopting these recommendations.
Attempts have also been made to learn from a careful study of the local culture
and indigenous practices. This “ecological” approach builds on an understanding
of the situation through a systematic analysis of the host culture before introduc-
ing an innovation. One example is Holliday’s attempt to use distance learning

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 12 Large-Sized Classes

approaches in a large class in a university setting in Egypt (cited in Shamim, 1993).

The approach, based on careful observation of the classroom context and culture
in university classes, found that large numbers were but one of the major con-
straints; other problems included bad acoustics and the arrangement of furniture
which did not allow the teacher to move around the classroom. However, a posi-
tive aspect of the classroom culture was learners’ propensity to work collabora-
tively and take responsibility for their learning. Thus the innovative methodology
developed for this context supported learners to work together on the given mate-
rial. In this way, on one hand it addressed the constraints observed in the physical
aspects of the classroom; on the other, it capitalized on the learners’ culture and
study preferences.
Another example is an unpublished study in Algeria, where it was noticed that
crowded mixed age and mixed gender traditional community education classes
with between 50 and 60 participants employed conservative rote learning tech-
niques. But it was also observed that learners worked independently and in groups
and that some peer teaching took place. Furthermore, the learners were given a
high degree of autonomy to decide the speed at which they wished to learn and
when they wanted to have their progress checked by the teacher. This enabled the
teacher to move around the class and pay attention to individual learners. Proposals
were therefore made for adapting these features of autonomous learning for English
classes of 40 pupils in state secondary schools and 150 students in universities.
A few attempts have been made to derive principles for teaching English from
research findings in large-sized classes. Coleman (1990, pp. 6–8) was perhaps the
first to propose a set of principles, based on the research conducted by the L5CR
project, for large-class teaching. His principles are as follows:
●● General principle 1: be realistic.
●● General principle 2: give more responsibility to the learners.
●● Specific principle 1: discomfort. Organize learning in ways that take the spot-
light away from the teacher, for example by using pair and group work. This
also allows the learners to take responsibility for their learning.
●● Specific principle 2: control. Do not try to monitor everything; share “control”
of learning by giving some responsibilities to the learners.
●● Specific principle 3: evaluation. Do not feel stressed about evaluating every-
thing that the learners produce. Learners can be encouraged to self-assess or
check their peer’s work and thus share responsibility for checking learning
with the teacher. Alternatively, being realistic, the teacher may decide that all
language produced by the learners does not need to be corrected.
●● Specific principle 4: individual attention. To address the problem of giving
­individual attention to learners in large classes, use activities that allow for
increased opportunities for individual interaction between teachers and learners.
More recently, Kuchah and Smith (2011) also derived some principles from
Kuchah’s practice of teaching a class of 200 secondary school students in difficult
circumstances in Cameroon. However, their principles focus more on learner
autonomy than class size per se.

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 Large-Sized Classes 13

Implications for Initial Teacher Education and Teacher Development

There is an urgent need for the variable of class size to be examined and
­discussed in teacher education programs, particularly in terms of developing context-
appropriate methodological approaches so as to maximize learning in varied size
classes. Currently, there seems to be no recognition in teacher education programs of
teachers’ problems in large classes or an attempt to prepare teachers in ways of, for
example, making group work more productive in small- and ­large-sized classes. Two
noteworthy exceptions, that have had some impact on participating teachers, are:

●● The MA TESOL module on learning and teaching in large classes, initiated at

the University of Leeds by Coleman in 1990. This continued until 2001.
●● A course titled Teaching and Learning in Large Classes: Research and Pedagogy,
introduced by Shamim in 2009 in the MS program in the English Department at
the University of Karachi, Pakistan.

These modules/courses were unfortunately discontinued after the course leaders

relocated to other places.
More recently, a Teaching English in Large Classes (TELC) module has been
introduced in the MS program at the University of Jamshoro, in Sindh, Pakistan,
by one of the former participants in the Leeds large classes module. The Leeds
large classes module played a significant role in bringing together teachers from
varied large-class contexts to share their “problems” and “solutions” both during
the module and through subsequent networking. This networking initiative was
later continued in the form of TELC, an online platform for large-class teachers
and researchers hosted by the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. This Web
site contains a bibliography on large classes as well as a blog and discussion
space for large-class teachers: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/
groups/llta/resources/telc/2._telc_network_description_0.pdf.
The action research conducted by one of the participants of the Karachi
University’s Large Class module was recently presented at an international con-
ference and is now being published as a book chapter. This indicates that teacher
development modules, projects, and initiatives can play a significant role in
encouraging and supporting teacher research on interventions for improving
teaching-learning in large-sized classes.

­Future Directions in Theory, Research, and Methodology

More work is required to describe and understand what happens in classes of

different sizes, so that teachers, learners, and policy makers can make decisions
based on solid evidence. In particular, work is still needed:
●● to develop theoretical models for class-size research;
●● to generate rich descriptions of even the largest classes in varied contexts;

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 14 Large-Sized Classes

●● to understand whether learners manage their learning differently in classes of

different sizes (and, if so, how);
●● to help teachers to analyze and understand how class size impacts on their
decision making and classroom ways of working;
●● to build on indigenous practices (“local wisdom”) regarding learning and
teaching in classes of different sizes;
●● to enable learners to develop autonomous and collaborative learning proce-
dures in contexts where they cannot expect to receive individual attention from
their teacher;
●● to enable teachers to undertake data-based advocacy which can lead to more
conducive teaching and learning conditions for themselves and their learners;
●● to enable policy makers in central and local government to undertake evidence-
based reform in matters relating to class size.
Mobile phone technology and social media have potential which so far has hardly
been exploited for facilitating communication between teachers and learners and
among learners in TESOL. This opens up the possibility that the boundary between
“large classes” and distance learning will become increasingly blurred in future.

SEE ALSO: Administration and Management of Kindergarten to 12th Grade

Classroom Environments; Assessing Large Classes; Continuous Teacher Training;
Independent Language Learners in TESOL; Interaction in the Classroom;
Teaching/Developing Vocabulary Through Peer Engagement and Interactive
Strategies; Teaching Large, Mixed-Ability Classes

References

Ajjan, M. (2012). Teaching and learning in large tertiary Syrian classes: An investigation into
students’ and tutors’ perspectives. (Unpublished PhD dissertation), University of
Warwick.
Akabayashi, H., & Nakamura, R. (2014). Can small class policy close the gap? An empirical
analysis of class size effects in Japan. The Japanese Economic Review, 65(3), 253–249. doi:
10.1111/jere.12017
Blatchford, P. (2012). Three generations of research on class size effects. In K. R. Harris, S.
Graham, & T. Urdan (Eds.), APA educational psychology handbook: Volume 2: Individual
differences and cultural and contextual factors (pp. 529–54). Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association. doi: 10.1037/13274-021
Coleman, H. (1990). The relationship between large class research and large class teaching.
SPELT (Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers) Newsletter, 5(1), 2–10.
Coleman, H. (1996). Darwin and the large class. In S. Gieve & I. K. Miller (Eds.), Understanding
the language classroom (pp. 115–35). Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
Coleman, H. (in press). An almost invisible ‘difficult circumstance’: The large class. In H.
Kuchah & F. Shamim (Eds.), International perspectives on teaching English in difficult
circumstances. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
Finn, J. D., & Achilles, C. M. (1990). Answers and questions about class size: A statewide
experiment. American Educational Research Journal, 27(3), 557–77.

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Galton, M., & Pell , T. (2009). Study on small class teaching in primary schools in Hong Kong:
Final report. Cambridge, England: University of Cambridge. Retrieved from www.legco.
gov.hk/yr09-10/english/panels/ed/…/ed0513-rpt0912-e.pdf
Glass, G. V., Cahen, L. S., Smith, M. L., & Filby, N. N. (1982). School class size: Research and
policy. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Kuchah, K. & Smith, R. (2011). Pedagogy of autonomy for difficult circumstances: Principles
from practice. International Journal of Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 5(2),
119–39. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17501229.2011.
577529
Mulryan-Kyne, C. (2010). Teaching large classes at college and university level: Challenges
and opportunities. Teaching in Higher Education, 15(2), 175–85. Retrieved from 10.1080/
13562511003620001
OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education). (1995). Class size and the quality of education.
OFSTED Report for academic years 1993/94 and 1994/95. London: Office for Standards in
Education.
Shamim, F. (1993). Teacher-learner behaviour and classroom processes in large ESL classes in
Pakistan. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), School of Education, University of Leeds,
England. Retrieved from etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/495/1/uk_bl_ethos_397452_pdf.
Shamim, F. (1996). In or out of the action zone: Location as a feature of interaction in large
ESL classes in Pakistan. In K. M. Bailey & D. Nunan (Eds.), Voices from the language
classroom (pp. 123–44). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Shamim, F. (2012). Teaching English in large classes. In A. Burns & J. Richards (Eds.), The
Cambridge guide to pedagogy and practice in second language teaching (pp. 95–102). Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press.
Shamim, F., Negash, N., Chuku, C., & Demewoz, N. (2007). Maximising learning in large
classes: Issues and options. Retrieved from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/
teacheng/files/ELT-16-screen.pdf
Todd, R. W. (2006). Why investigate large classes? Reflections (Special issue: Large classes), 9
1–13. Retrieved from arts.kmutt.ac.th/sola/rEFL/Vol9_Reflections_Large_Classes.pdf

Suggested Reading

Shamim, F., & Kuchah, H. (2016). Teaching large classes in difficult circumstances. In G. Hall
(Ed.), Routledge Handbook of English Language Teaching. London & New York: Routledge.

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