Abstract

Students from Confucian heritage cultures (CHCs), such as China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan, consistently outperform Western students in many academic subjects, under conditions, such as large class teaching, that seem counter-indicated by Western research. These results have been used to justify increases in class size on the grounds that size is irrelevant to effective teaching. Such thinking is simplistic. Children in CHCs are socialized in ways that make them amenable to work in large classes, so that management problems are minimal and teachers can focus on meaningful learning using whole-class methods. An educational system forms a working whole, each component interacting with all other components. Isolating any one component (such as class size) and transplanting it into a different system shows a deep misunderstanding of how educational systems work.

Citation

Biggs, J. Learning from the Confucian heritage: so size doesn’t matter?. International Journal of Educational Research, 29(8), 723-738. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved August 5, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/203418/.