ABSTRACT
This research was carried out to investigate perceived influence of class size on the effective teaching and learning of Integrated Science in Junior Secondary Schools in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State. To achieve this aim, five research questions were formulated. Four public Junior Secondary Schools were randomly selected for the study. A total of hundred respondents (twenty teachers and eighty students) were used for the study. The research instrument used for the study was the questionnaire which was validated by the Supervisor and two other lecturers before it was used for the collection of data from the respondents.
At the end of the analysis, the study revealed that large class size influence the effective teaching and learning of Integrated Science, causes unseriousness in class, limit learning in Integrated Science classes, makes teaching boring, creates division in class and also makes teachers and students’ interactions noisy which hinders the effective learning of Integrated Science. It was also revealed that students in small sized classes have more interest and desire to study Integrated Science, and that classroom management and assessment of students is more effective in small sized classes.
The study further recommends that policy makers and government should make and enforce policies that would ensure less numbers of students in the classroom, and school administration should regulate the number of students enrolled, and enrolment should be based on available space and resources, modern classroom should be built, and teachers especially those teaching large classroom should be trained from time to time.
