Symonds, Jennifer;
Boheim, Ricardo;
Somerville, Matthew;
Baines, Edward;
Tang, Xin;
Oeri, Niamh;
Rinas, Raven;
... Martinez Sainz, Gabriella; + view all
(2025)
Children’s Momentary Behavioural Engagement and Class Size: A National Systematic Observation Study.
Frontline Learning Research
, 13
(2)
pp. 51-66.
10.14786/flr.v13i2.1431.
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Abstract
This study used systematic observation to test the direct and moderating effects of class size on children’s momentary behavioural engagement in learning. Data were collected with 632 children (50.6% girls) in 121 classrooms in 92 schools recruited into the Children’s School Lives national cohort study of Irish primary schooling. The Observational and Research Classroom Learning Evaluation (ORACLE) systematic observation tool was used to observe individual children’s behaviour at 30-seconds intervals across a five-minute period in ordinary lessons of English, mathematics, science and Irish. Multilevel path models identified that behavioural engagement was higher in smaller classes and behavioural disengagement was higher in larger classes. Class size also moderated the impact of several individual differences and classroom composition factors on momentary behavioural engagement. For example, smaller classrooms protected lower ability children from disengaging whereas higher ability children were more likely to stay engaged in larger classes compared to lower ability children. Implications for research, practice and policy are discussed.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Children’s Momentary Behavioural Engagement and Class Size: A National Systematic Observation Study |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.14786/flr.v13i2.1431 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.14786/flr.v13i2.1431 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) 2025. Original content in this paper is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Ability, Class size, Behavioural engagement, Observation, Momentary engagement |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10206445 |
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