ABSTRACT

The effectiveness of class size reduction on student performance has been of great research interest and policy debate worldwide. Nevertheless, the evidence has been largely inconclusive partially due to potential bias arising from non-random placement of students and teachers in classrooms of different sizes. This study applied instrumental variable (IV) methods and used a regression discontinuity design (RDD) to conduct analyses of TIMSS data in 2003, 2007 and 2011. The purpose was to investigate over time the effects of class size on eighth grade students’ cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes on five mathematics and science subjects in four European countries (i.e. Hungary, Lithuania, Romania and Slovenia). IV estimates indicate that in Romania in 2003 smaller classes had significant and positive effects on academic scores in mathematics, physics, chemistry and earth science and in 2007 on enjoyment to learn mathematics. In Lithuania, in 2011 small classes had significant and positive effects on enjoyment to learn biology and chemistry and learning chemistry well. In 2007 however, the effects were reversed on some of the biology related non-cognitive outcomes. Overall, the class size effects that were significant were also substantial in magnitude and typically much larger than the effects reported in Project STAR.

摘要

减少班级人数对学生表现的有效性在全世界引起了极大的研究兴趣和政策辩论。然而，证据在很大程度上是不确定的，部分原因是由于学生和教师在不同规模的教室中的非随机安置而产生的潜在偏见。本研究应用工具变量 (IV) 方法并使用回归不连续性设计 (RDD) 对 2003、2007 和 2011 年的 TIMSS 数据进行分析。目的是随着时间的推移调查班级规模对八年级学生认知和认知能力的影响。四个欧洲国家（即匈牙利、立陶宛、罗马尼亚和斯洛文尼亚）的五个数学和科学科目的非认知结果。IV 估计表明，2003 年在罗马尼亚，较小的班级对数学的学术成绩有显着和积极的影响，物理、化学和地球科学，并在 2007 年享受学习数学。在立陶宛，2011 年小班教学对学习生物和化学的乐趣以及学好化学产生了显着的积极影响。然而，在 2007 年，对一些与生物学相关的非认知结果的影响发生了逆转。总体而言，显着的班级规模效应在规模上也很显着，通常比项目 STAR 中报告的效应大得多。