The effect of a large class size on pupils academic performance. Causes, challenges and recommendations (PDF)

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2024 in the subject Pedagogy - The Teacher, Educational Leadership, University Of Abuja (Education), course: Education, language: English, abstract: This paper evaluates the effect of large class size on pupil's academic performance. It will discuss the causes and challenges of a large class size, as well as give recommendations for improvement. Therefore a study was created, where data collection was accomplished through the use of a questionnaire and the study employed a descriptive research design. A simple random sampling technique was used. The study has a sample size of 284 and the SPSS software was used to analyze the gathered data.

The study revealed that 86.6% of the participants agreed that their academic performance is negatively impacted by the large class, whereas 9.9% disagreed with this viewpoint and 3.5% were uncertain. Again, out of the total responses, 200 individuals (70.4%) agreed that managing a large class poses a significant challenge for teachers due to uncontrollable noise caused by pupils play activities, while 24.7% disagreed and 4.9% were uncertain. Furthermore, 84.2% agreed with the idea of admitting students based on classroom capacity as the strategy in controlling large class size, while only 10.6% disagreed and 5.3% were uncertain.

In conclusion, class size is a crucial determinant of educational outcomes. Students require a liberating and supportive atmosphere to facilitate and enhance their learning. In order for successful teaching to occur, teachers require a conducive environment and an acceptable student-to-teacher ratio. The study recommends that government should allocate significant resources towards enhancing the educational infrastructure and creating a conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning. Finally, school administrators should admit students based on the available learning resources.