Can you answer the question ?

1

The Impact of Large Class Sizes on Student Learning,

Including Academic Performance and Classroom Engagement,

at Meadowfield Elementary School

Michael Whitener

Liberty University

EDUC 880

Chapter One: Introduction

Overview

The purpose of this quantitative study is to investigate the effects of large class sizes on student learning outcomes at Meadowfield Elementary School. At Meadowfield Elementary School, large class sizes have been shown to negatively influence teachers' ability to teach, manage students' behaviour, and engage them in a meaningful way (South Carolina Department of Education, 2025). This chapter is comprised of the Organizational Profile, Introduction to the Problem, Significance of the Research, Purpose Statement, Central Research Question, Definitions, and Summary.

Organizational Profile

Meadowfield Elementary School is a public school at 525 Galway Lane in Columbia, South Carolina, in the Richland County School District One. Established in 1967, it has the mission of being "a leader in transforming lives through education, empowering all students to achieve their potential and dreams" (Richland One, 2025). The school has an enrollment of about 615 students in Pre-K to 5th grade, with a student population of 63% African American, 19% White, 9% Hispanic, 7% two or more races, and 2% Asian, with 100% eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch (South Carolina Department of Education, 2025). There are about 47 full-time teachers and one school counselor on staff with the principal, Dr. Timothy Blackwell (U.S. News Education, 2025; Columbia Star, 2025). Meadowfield is a National Paideia Model School that provides Gifted and Talented programs, STEM, visual and performing arts, and extracurricular activities (South Carolina Department of Education, 2025).

Introduction to the Problem

High class sizes at Meadowfield Elementary School have been shown to hinder teachers' capacity to provide tailored instruction, manage behaviour, and keep students engaged, which has a negative impact on learning outcomes (South Carolina Department of Education, 2025). Studies show students in larger classes exhibit more off-task behaviour, especially low-achieving students (Blatchford & Russell, 2020). In a review of 112 peer-reviewed studies, the vast majority found smaller class sizes have a substantial impact on academic performance and closing the achievement gap (Zyngier, 2014). In an effort to improve student achievement, Meadowfield Elementary has adopted a Professional Learning Community model and employs data to inform differentiation of instruction (South Carolina Department of Education, 2025).

Significance of the Research

This research has serious implications for several stakeholders related to Meadowfield Elementary School. Students have the most to gain directly, since empirical evidence on the relationship between class size and student learning outcomes may inform specific interventions that enhance the quality of their academic experience. Having fewer or well-controlled class sizes can result in students getting a more personalized education and achieving better academic outcomes (Oduwan & Francis, 2023). The teachers are other beneficiaries of this research. The teaching staff in overcrowded classrooms tend to report high levels of professional stress and reduced instructional effectiveness (Blatchford et al., 2011). This research can contribute to advocacy by developing a better understanding of the impact of large classes on instructional quality, thereby justifying more equitable staffing and resource distribution.

Another group of critical stakeholders is school administrators and district leaders. The research can equip them with factual information to make sound judgments about school enrollment policies, classroom assignments, and the hiring of extra instructional staff. Moreover, the findings of this study can be valuable to policymakers in South Carolina. Since the South Carolina Department of Education (2025) is monitoring class-size metrics as part of school report-card data, research establishing the academic effects of large classes may influence future legislative decisions on class-size requirements. Lastly, the study can be useful to the general educational research community by expanding the existing empirical evidence on the relationship between class size and student achievement in public elementary schools (Oduwan & Francis, 2023).

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this quantitative research is to examine how large classes affect the learning of students (both academic achievement and classroom behavior) in Meadowfield Elementary School in South Carolina. To eliminate this issue, the data will be gathered in three ways: (a) a review of academic performance records such as standardized tests scores and grades of the students in Meadowfield Elementary School; (b) a survey, which will be conducted among classroom teachers in Meadowfield Elementary School to assess their perceptions of student engagement in large classes; and (c) structured classroom observations to be carried out in the selected grade-level classrooms in These three pieces of data collection will give a combined quantitative and observational evidence to conclude the effect of a large class size in academic performance and classroom engagement among students at the elementary level.

Central Research Question

What is the impact of large class sizes on student learning, including academic performance and classroom engagement, at Meadowfield Elementary School?

Definitions

Academic performance. The quantifiable results of the student learning in terms of grades, standardized tests, or classroom-based assessments (López-Martin et al., 2023)..

Class size. This is the number of students who will be allocated to one classroom teacher to do the teaching (Blatchford et al., 2011).

Classroom engagement. How actively students engage in and pay attention to learning activities and instructional content during class time (López-Martin et al., 2023).

Individualized instruction. Teaching that is based on the unique learning requirements, speed, and strengths of individual learners in the classroom (Oduwan & Francis, 2023).

Student engagement. The interest and attention the students show the educator about pedagogy issues (López-Martin et al., 2023).

Student-teacher ratio. The mathematical calculation of the number of students in a school or classroom and the number of teachers in a school or classroom that serves as an indicator of instructional workload and resource allocation (South Carolina Department of Education, 2025).

Summary

This quantitative study aims to examine how large classes influence student learning, in terms of academic performance and classroom activity, at Meadowfield Elementary School, in South Carolina. The issue is that during the 2025-26 school year, Meadowfield Elementary School had the mean class size of 24.1 students (South Carolina Department of Education, 2025). In this chapter, the Organizational Profile, the Introduction to the Problem, the Significance of the Research, the Purpose Statement, the Central Research Question, and the Definitions were discussed.

Chapter Three: Procedures

Overview

The purpose of this quantitative study is to investigate the impact of large class sizes on student learning, including academic performance and classroom engagement, at Meadowfield Elementary School in South Carolina. The problem is that in the 2025–26 school year, the average class size at Meadowfield Elementary School was 24.1 students (South Carolina Department of Education, 2025). This chapter presents the Interview Procedures used to collect data from classroom teachers at Meadowfield Elementary School, including the type of interview, participant identification and sampling approach, interview administration format, data analysis procedures, and ten open-ended interview questions, each grounded in the relevant scholarly literature.

Interview Procedures

The initial form of data collection that will be used in this research is semi-structured interviews whereby classroom teachers at Meadowfield Elementary School will be interviewed. The use of semi-structured interviews was due to the fact that this type of interview is flexible and yet consistent as it provides the researcher with the opportunity to delve into the personal experience and perceptions of the participants without violating the main topics as everything is discussed systematically (Creswell and Guetterman, 2021). Semi-structured interviews allow respondents to expand on their experiences and add contextually important information that might not have been predicted during the protocol development unlike fully structured interviews, which limits the respondent to predefined answers (Castillo-Montoya, 2021). This method is especially ideal to the present study since the researcher is interested in comprehending how classroom teachers at Meadowfield Elementary School understand and encounter the instructional and engagement challenges related to large class sizes.

The sample size will be determined through purposeful sampling, where the researcher will be targeting people who have direct and relevant experience with the phenomenon being studied and will actively recruit them (Palinkas et al., 2015). In particular, the classroom teachers who are currently working in classes of 20 or more students in Meadowfield Elementary School will be asked to take part. Such qualification guarantees that everyone is familiar with the issues of large class sizes first-hand and their answers will be the most relevant to the research questions (Creswell and Guetterman, 2021). Eight to twelve kindergarten to fifth grade teachers will be recruited as a target sample. This size has been deemed suitable to reach data saturation in qualitative interview research of this magnitude since themes and patterns in the information are likely to become redundant within this scope (Fusch & Ness, 2015).

The interviews will be carried out in a personal, quiet place that will be agreed upon by the researcher and each participant and will be in person. The interviews will take about 45 to 60 minutes. All interviews will be audio-recorded and transcribed word-to-word with the written permission of the participant to capture all the data and make sure that the information is complete and accurate (Castillo-Montoya, 2021). To ensure that the participants will remain confidential their pseudonyms will be designated before transcription. Any audio recordings, transcripts and any other materials will be stored on a password-protected device that can only be accessed by the primary researcher and all data will be destroyed once the study has been completed in line with institutional data protection measures.

Thematic analysis will be used to analyze data by being a systematic method of qualitative analysis to identify, categorize, and interpret meaning patterns of a data set (Braun and Clarke, 2022). After the transcription, the researcher will first undergo an initial stage of open coding which will assign descriptive labels to pieces of information pertinent to the class size, instructional challenges, student engagement, and academic performance. The codes will then be placed under larger themes and will be cross-tabulated using responses of participants to determine common patterns. Member checking will also be used to enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of findings, where participants are requested to check summaries of their answers to determine their accuracy (Creswell and Guetterman, 2021). Reduction of the researcher bias in the analysis process will also be achieved by peer debriefing with an adept colleague.

Interview Questions

The ten open ended interview questions listed below were designed to gather informative and descriptive responses by the classroom teachers on the effects of large classes on the learning, academic achievement and classroom interaction of the students. All of the questions are based on the corresponding academic literature.

1.In what ways has teaching a group of 20 or more students influenced your capacity to deliver differentiated teaching to each student?

Reasoning: It has been shown that large classes considerably decrease the ability of teachers to provide individualized instruction, one of the most important variables in the academic performance of students (Hattie, 2022). The question reflects how this limitation directly manifests itself in the day-to-day practice of teachers.

2. How, or have you not, have you experienced the size of classes to influence the academic performance of your students during a school year?

Rationalization: Research has attributed the overcrowded classes to the quantifiable negative effects on student academic performance, especially during the lower elementary grades (Oduwan & Francis, 2023). This question questions the teachers to provide observational data about the correlation between the size of the class and student performance.

3. What do you think is the amount of classroom engagement with your students and how do you think class size helps or hinders this amount of engagement?

Reason: The instructional environment is strongly linked with classroom engagement, such as the student-teacher ratio (Blatchford et al., 2011). This question explores teacher expectations of how class size and quality of student engagement relate.

4. What were some of your particular instruction strategies to deal with the issues of a large classroom and how effective do you feel they were in helping students learn?

Justification: Teachers in large classes often create adaptive teaching practices to address environmental limitations, and it is crucial to learn more about such adaptations to determine the most effective practices (Creswell and Guetterman, 2021). This question reveals the practical strategies that teachers use and how effective they believe them to be.

5. What is the impact of the number of students in your classroom on your capacity to consistently evaluate and track the learning outcomes of individual learners?

Reason: Formative assessment is an essential aspect of the successful work of a teacher, but in large classes, a teacher may struggle to pay appropriate attention to the development of each student in a timely and meaningful manner (López-Martin et al., 2023). The question investigates the real issues of assessment in overcrowded classes.

6. How do the size of classes affect the willingness and the opportunity of the students to engage in classroom discourse and the willingness to pose questions during lessons in your experience?

Reason: Students in big classes are less likely to have a chance of personal contact with the teacher, which may decrease their participation and narrow their active learning (Blatchford et al., 2011). This question examines the influence of class size on patterns of student participation as perceived by teachers.

7. What have been some of the challenges that you have had in managing student behavior in a large classroom and how these challenges have impacted the learning environment in general?

Rationale: Classroom management gets more complicated with the increase in the size of the class and the consequences of behavioral disruptions can significantly worsen the academic climate (Hattie, 2022). This question will explore the behavioral management issues that come with big classes and the impact that they have on the learning environment.

8. How have you experienced professional well being, such as your job satisfaction and your feelings of instructional effectiveness in teaching a large class?

Justification: The quality of instruction and teacher professional well-being and job satisfaction are directly correlated, and studies have shown that teachers in overcrowded classes report more stress and less job satisfaction (López-Martin et al., 2023). This question describes the professional and emotional experience of teaching in a large-class setting.

9. What and where do you think resources, supports, or structural changes would be most effective in helping teachers in Meadowfield Elementary School deal with the issues of large class sizes and enhance student outcomes?

Rationale: The views of teachers on the requirements of resources and structural supports are crucial to the creation of practical, evidence-based recommendations (Castillo-Montoya, 2021). This question will bring practical feedback directly out of the educators that have to deal with large classes on a daily basis.

10. What would you change about the current situation involving the size of the classroom at Meadowfield Elementary School that would help to increase student learning outcomes? Why?

Rationale: This method of asking the participants to define one priority intervention is a helpful practice of unearthing the most urgent needs, according to the perception of frontline practitioners (Braun & Clarke, 2022). The question prompting teachers to reflect on their professional experience syntactically and in a visionary, solutions-based way facilitates the explicit translation of their experience into the study recommendations.

Summary

This quantitative research aims to examine how large classes affect student learning, in terms of academic outcomes and classroom interactions at Meadowfield Elementary School in South Carolina. The issue is that the average number of students in a class was 24.1 at the Meadowfield Elementary School in the 2025-26 school year (South Carolina Department of Education, 2025). In this chapter, the Interview Procedures and Interview Questions were introduced.

References

Blatchford, P., Bassett, P., & Brown, P. (2011). Examining the effect of class size on classroom engagement and teacher–pupil interaction: Differences in relation to pupil prior attainment and primary vs. secondary schools. Learning and Instruction, 21(6), 715–730. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2011.04.001

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2022). Thematic analysis: A practical guide. SAGE Publications.

Castillo-Montoya, M. (2021). Preparing for interview research: The interview protocol refinement framework. The Qualitative Report, 21(5), 811–831. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2016.2337

Creswell, J. W., & Guetterman, T. C. (2021). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (6th ed.). Pearson.

Fusch, P. I., & Ness, L. R. (2015). Are we there yet? Data saturation in qualitative research. The Qualitative Report, 20(9), 1408–1416. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2015.2281

Hattie, J. (2022). Visible learning: The sequel. Routledge.

López-Martín, E., Gutiérrez-de-Rozas, B., González-Benito, A. M., & Expósito-Casas, E. (2023). Why do teachers matter? A meta-analytic review of how teacher characteristics and competencies affect students’ academic achievement. International Journal of Educational Research, 120, 102199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2023.102199

Oduwan, J., & Francis, A. (2023). Teacher-student ratio and job performance of teachers in government universal secondary education schools in Bukedea town council, Bukedea district, Uganda [Doctoral dissertation, Kampala International University]. KIU Institutional Repository.

Palinkas, L. A., Horwitz, S. M., Green, C. A., Wisdom, J. P., Duan, N., & Hoagwood, K. (2015). Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42(5), 533–544. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-013-0528-y

South Carolina Department of Education. (2025). South Carolina school report cards. https://screportcards.com