Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 15, Issue 2, Article 9 (Dec., 2014) Kwok Chi LAU The science education of the East Asian regions – what we can learn from PISA Previous Contents Next

Class size

Large class size is a sweeping feature of the East Asian regions. This can be seen indirectly from the data of PISA 2012 that showed the size of the language class. While very few OECD countries had class size bigger than 36, the East Asian regions had 40% to 80% of classes having more than 36 students (Table 11). Vietnam, Shanghai and Taipei had even a significant proportion of classes bigger than 40. Given that these East Asian regions top in the PISA tests, large class size seems not a big problem for their performance.

Table 11. Class size of test language class in 2012

	36-40 students (%)	41-45 students (%)
Japan	55.2	12.95
Korea	40.72	5.65
Hong Kong	44.26	3.5
Taipei	27.7	22.78
Singapore	75.15	2.57
Vietnam	13.46	36.52
Shanghai	32.3	19.56
Macao	51.7	13.47
OECD average	5.33	2.14