Fra 15 til 22 elever i klassen: Hvordan påvirker større klasse elevenes læringsmiljø og trivsel?

Abstract

Due to reduced school budgets, several schools in Northern Norway have had to increase their class sizes and reduce the number of teachers. This has led to changes for the pupils in terms of larger classroom groups, new teachers, and different class arrangements. In this pre/post one-year follow-up study, we evaluated the well-being and learning atmosphere among the pupils at three distinct points in time: 1) before the changes; 2) four months after the changes took place; and 3) one year after the changes materialized. The aim was to monitor whether these changes led to a drop in self-reported well-being among the students. The results were somewhat paradoxical. On the one hand, the pupils reported an increase in well-being. On the other hand, in terms of everyday life in the classroom, they reported the learning atmosphere as poorer. We believe the existing measures to assess well-being in schools can be questioned.