Eureka! Institutional Repository

The aim of the study was to determine to what extent the high school teachers of the prefecture of Thessaloniki, Greece, agree or disagree with the existing literature, linking the size of the class with the academic success of the students. For this purpose the questionnaire method was adopted and was addressed to 110 high school teachers of the prefecture. The results of the research showed that the participants believe that there is a negative relationship between a classroom size and the students’ academic success, while small classes contribute to student greatest achievements. The most important parameters of the negative impact of larger classes were the limitation of the teachers’ ability to apply a variety of teaching methods, the limitation of the provision of adequate equipment or technological material to each student and the increased discipline issues, while the fundamental parameter of the positive impact of smaller classes was the teachers’ opportunity to spend more time on each individual student. Finally, any disagreements that may have been expressed were mainly due to differences in the gender, the educational level and the teaching experience or not in larger classes.