“Goliath was blind To his approach- and then he was down, too big and slow and blurry- eyed to comprehend the way the tables had been turned” (Gladwell, 15). David and Goliath is a really interesting book written by Malcolm Gladwell. The thing with this book is each chapter is a different story and each chapter ends with how it relates to David and Goliath and the disadvantages and the advantages that people do not seem to realize. All Gladwell’s points are geared towards what the underdog can actually end up achieving. Although Gladwell may seem to be completely biased at times, after the reader finishes reading any section, it gets one thinking and re-evaluating the thoughts one may of had before. When first reading Gladwell's, David and…show more content… We should consider the reliability and the credibility of what he is portraying. He uses a research by Caroline Hoxby as a rebuttal that class sizes really don't have any sort of effect. This is where his bias comes in handy, Gladwell wants to prove that smaller class sizes do help. But the thing is research does show that class size can be a beneficial factor. Evidence that smaller class size may help is “one of the earliest influential meta-studies was by Glass and Smith in 1979. They statistically analyzed 300 reports involving almost 900,000 students. Once class size fell below about 15, learning increased progressively as class size became smaller” (Mathis, 60). One can say that Gladwell’s bias is fitted. The only thing is Gladwell uses a credible source very few times. he tends to focus his reasoning on teachers interviews, basically the teachers self preference of classes. Some disagree, “I had a class of nine students and grade-twelve Academic French. Sounds like a dream, doesn't it? It was a nightmare! You can't get any kind of conversation or discussion going in the target language. It's difficult to play games to reinforce vocabulary, grammar skills, etc. the momentum just wasn't there” (Gladwell, 58). Some agree, “My perfect numbers eighteen: that's enough bodies in the room that no one person needs to feel vulnerable, but everyone can feel important. Eighteen divides handily into groups of two or three or six. With eighteen students, I can always get to each one of them when I need to” (Gladwell, 56). The opinions used are not reliable since they are opinions in fact it tells the reader what the teachers specifically like not proving to the reader anything that may have been done to show class sizes affecting learning in
