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Small schools and higher-order thinking skills (1993)
| Venue: | Journal of Research in Rural Education |
| Citations: | 14 - 0 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Haller93smallschools,
author = {Emil J. Haller and David H. Monk and Lydia T. Tien},
title = {Small schools and higher-order thinking skills},
journal = {Journal of Research in Rural Education},
year = {1993},
pages = {66--73}
}
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Abstract
We tested an explanation foranapparent anomaly in the research literature onsmall rural schools: While those schools offer fewer courses and less comprehensive programs in science and mathematics than do large urban institutions,student achievement in theformer is equal to that in thelatter. Wehypothesized that themoreextensive curricula of large schools promote a particular kind of academic achievement: the development of higher-order thinking skills in science and mathematics. These skillshavebeen unexamined in preinous studiesof theeffects of school size on student achievement. NationLllly representative data from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth were used to test this conjecture. The hypothesis was notsupported: Smalland rural highschools are apparently theequals of larger andmore urban institutions in impartinghigher-order thinkingskills to students.. According to traditional arguments, small schools are less effective and less efficient than their larger counterparts. This is not the place to contest the validity of those claims. However, they are plausible when we consider the curricu-lum adequacy of high schools. There are now numerous studies of the effect of school size on curriculum offerings, and these investigations suggest that large secondary schools are able to offer a greater number of courses than small ones
Keyphrases
higher-order thinking skill small school school size student achievement large secondary school numerous study large school academic achievement american youth rural school smalland rural highschool curricu-lum adequacy small one preinous studiesof theeffects research literature traditional argument impartinghigher-order thinkingskills explanation foranapparent anomaly andmore urban institution representative data particular kind themoreextensive curriculum comprehensive program curriculum offering high school longitudinal study large urban institution
