Class Size and Students’ Academic Achievement in Social Studies in Colleges of Education in Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examined the influence of class size on students’ academic achievement in Social Studies in Colleges of Education in Cross River State, Nigeria. The research design adopted for this study was the Ex- post facto design. The population of the study was made up of students in the College of Education Akamkpa and the Federal College of Education Obudu offering Social Studies in the 2016/2017 academic session, totaling one thousand, three hundred and forty three students (1,343); out of which seven hundred and fifty- three students were sampled for the study. The main instruments used for data collection were Class Size Questionnaire (CSQ) and Social Studies Achievement Test (SOSAT). Split-half method of reliability was  used to establish the reliability estimate of the instruments. The statistical analysis technique adopted was the one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The result indicated that, class size has significant influence on students’ academic achievement in Social Studies. Based on the finding of the study, it was recommended that Government should build more classrooms in order to reduce the large class size to measurable class size, as small class size produces better academic achievement than large class size.