Class Size Matters. But Design Matters More
I used to think size doesn’t matter. Then I taught thirty-five students at once.That moment strips teaching down to its essentials.
Because when numbers rise, there’s nowhere to hide. Every unclear instruction. Every duplicated task. Every assessment done out of habit rather than intention — it all compounds.
In that class, I could see the spread immediately. Some students were flying. Some were quietly slipping. A few were already being described as “failing”. Not because they couldn’t learn — but because the system only noticed them too late.
At first, I responded the way many conscientious teachers do. I marked more. I intervened more. I worked harder. It wasn’t sustainable. And worse — it wasn’t effective.
That’s why today’s Straits Times article on class sizes and teaching workload resonated so strongly with me:
Large classes don’t just increase workload. They expose whether assessment is designed to support learning — or simply record outcomes.
Recently, a teacher approached me for a coffee chat. Her name was Mrs Lee. She said quietly, “I really can’t manage the workload. Thirty-five students feels impossible.” We didn’t start by adding strategies. We started by changing design.
We made progress visible because we can’t move forward unless we know where we are. Learning intentions became explicit. Success criteria were shared, not hidden. Examples of work across a range were discussed openly. And the students Mrs Lee was most worried about? They stopped seeing themselves as failing and started seeing themselves as in progress.Daily formative assessment made that possible. Not as extra work — but as the work. Once assessment became continuous, learning became genuinely personalised, even in large classes.
This is what scalable personalisation looks like: shared goals and success criteria, with different pathways towards the same learning destination. This was true in my classroom years ago. And it’s what I now help other teachers do.
The implications:
Personalisation without individualisation Personalised learning does not mean thirty-five individual lesson plans. When goals and criteria are shared, students can move along different pathways at different speeds — without multiplying teacher workload.
Workload is a design outcome Workload spikes are not inevitable. They are created by assessment structure. Summative-heavy systems create late marking and remediation peaks. Formative, embedded assessment smooths workload and reduces burnout.
Visibility is an equity issue Students fall behind fastest when expectations are invisible. Making learning and progress visible protects struggling learners without lowering standards.
Teachers must be designers, not just deliverers What scaled in my classroom wasn’t heroic effort. It was intentional design. Teachers need time, trust, and assessment literacy to design learning that works at scale.
Before I talk about policy and design, I want to show you where this thinking began.What you’re about to see is a research study of classroom practice.
A case study that examines conception and practice
The teacher in the case study-Alisha-is me.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pUi0qMnR4yHlPe7vrrQCnCaW96sgIZoH/view?usp=sharing
For transparency- the “Alisha” in the research paper I share is me. The study documents this practice and the reasoning behind it — work I now use to help other teachers teach well in large classes. So I’ll end plainly — and directly.
Class size matters. But design determines whether teachers survive or succeed.
The real question isn’t only: “How many students are in a class?
Rather, it is: “What have we designed teachers to do with that reality?”
If you’re a teacher — where are you carrying more than you should be? If you’re a policymaker or system leader — which of these designs are you enabling today? As we talk about AI, technology, and Education 4.0, this is my quiet provocation: progress starts with better design, not just better tools
I write more about these questions in my blog and Linkedin newsletter — When Curiosity Meets Coffee — where classroom truth, research, and system thinking meet ☕️
Link to Linkedin article here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-large-class-sizes-taught-me-assessment-impact-system-kaur-nbric/?trackingId=Fu2BvqgST6m16xfpzzZLJg%3D%3D
