Small classes can have a profound effect on students throughout their school lives, a new study has found.
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Dr David Zyngier, a senior lecturer in education at Monash University, says small classes over the first four years of a child's schooling have a lasting impact right through year 12. And the impact is greatest on disadvantaged children.
Dr Zyngier's findings are the result of a review of 112 research projects into class size undertaken over the past 25 years in a dozen countries.
He says the highly selective nature of the research supporting current policy advice to education ministers is flawed.
In a paper published on Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal Evidence Base, Dr Zyngier says the overwhelming evidence disproves claims by conservative commentators that smaller classes don't make a difference.
Two years ago federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne declared: ''There is no evidence that smaller class sizes somehow produce better student outcomes.''