Effective Practices/Strategies for Teaching Large Classes – What Have We Learned in 25 Years of Research?

• In Event: How Do We Handle All the Children? Understanding Pedagogies for Overcrowded Classrooms in Malawi

Proposal

Like many technical specialists providing teacher training in low- and middle-income contexts (LMICs), our team began to wonder, “How do these teachers manage and instruct so many learners in overcrowded classrooms – and do these practices effectively improve student learning outcomes?” In an attempt to understand effective pedagogies for use in overcrowded classrooms, our research team began reading through the available literature for pointers on effective practices that could be inculcated into local culture and teacher professional development programs. We quickly found that a paucity in empirical research on effective pedagogical practices exists in the field, and published articles citing effective methodologies focused on LMICs with legitimately overcrowded classrooms (i.e., more than 80 children learning together) were few and far between. Our team decided to conduct a Scoping Review of all literature published in the last 25 years on effective teaching and assessment methods for overcrowded classrooms. We searched 14 databases and reviewed the reference lists of relevant resources to locate additional references and requested known resources from colleagues in the field. The following keywords were used in the searches: 1) large class pedagogy; 2) managing large classes; 3) classrooms in sub-Saharan Africa; 4) large class teaching; 5) large class management; 6) strategies for teaching large classes; and 7) overcrowded classrooms.
The criteria established for the selection of the articles required that resources: 1) were published in English; 2) were related to pre-primary, primary and secondary school classrooms; 3) discussed either management strategies, pedagogy, or assessment techniques for large classes; and 4) were published between 2000 and 2024. Our database search identified 14712 resources. We focused on pre-primary, primary, and secondary school classrooms because these learners are most at-risk for school drop-out academic failure due to overcrowded classrooms. We excluded findings from higher education institutions, technical and vocational education, and professional development, bringing our total number of resources to 133. In this presentation, we will share the findings from our scoping review of teaching and assessment practices in overcrowded classrooms across the globe We will then engage the audience in a discussion of the challenges of teaching in overcrowded classrooms provide directions for future research on LCP in LMIC contexts informed by our findings.

Authors

• Adrienne Barnes-Story, Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University

• Jennie Robinette, Florida State University, Learning Systems Institute

• Brenda Aromu Wawire, Florida State University, Learning Systems Institute

• Bubire Jere, University of Malawi