Small-group instruction to improve student performance in mathematics in early grades: Results from a randomized field experiment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bonesronning, Hans; Finseraas, Henning; Hardoy, Ines; Iversen, Jon Marius Vaag; Nyhus, Ole Henning; Opheim, Vibeke; Salvanes, Kari Vea; Sandsor, Astrid Marie Jorde; Schone, Pal
• 署名单位: University of Oslo; Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU); Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU)
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2022.104765
• 发表日期: 2022
• 关键词: Education economics; Small-group instruction; Tutoring; tracking; class size; field experiment; intervention; randomized controlled trial; Teacher-student ratio mathematics; C93 (Field Experiments); H52 (Government Expenditures and Education); I21 (Analysis of Education)

摘要

We investigate whether small-group instruction improves student performance in mathematics in the early grades using a large-scale RCT covering 159 Norwegian schools over four years. The students -7-9 years old -are pulled out from their regular mathematics classes into small, homogenous groups of 4-6 students for mathematics instruction for 3 to 4 h per week, for two periods of 4-6 weeks per school year. Unlike many other recent tutoring experiments, all students are pulled out, not only strug-gling students. In our intention-to-treat analysis, we find that students in treatment schools increased their performance by 0.06 of a standard deviation in national tests, with no differential effect by baseline test score level, parental education, or gender. Our study is particularly relevant for policy-makers seek-ing to use additional teaching resources to target a heterogeneous student population efficiently. (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).