Teaching Large Classes

Self-Assessment Question:

Do you know how to teach large classes that will be lively, engaging, personable, and educationally significant?

Quick Take:

Large classes (meaning classes with over 100 students) present special challenges to the teacher. The two major educational challenges are that they make students feel anonymous and passive. Then, depending on how the teacher responds to these challenges, there may be second-level problems of class morale and discipline. In addition, the teacher faces inherent "logistical" problems, e.g., distributing and collecting homework, tests, handouts, posting grades, etc.

How to respond to these challenges? The first issue is to make a decision about what course structure to use. There are four basic choices and each has its special challenge to making that option work effectively.

I. Complete Lecture: Keep the class as one large class, and keep the lecture as the main teaching/learning activity. The three big challenges here are (a) making the lecture very interesting, (b) finding ways to incorporate active learning, and (c) managing the logistics of papers, exams, grades, etc.
II. Part Lecture/Part Break-Out Sections: In this option, the students meet part of the time as one large class and part of the time in smaller discussion or lab sections. Teaching assistants (TA's) are generally used to lead the break-out sections. The lectures still needs to be excellent in this option, but one also needs to invest heavily in TA training, because they change every 1-3 years.
III. All Multiple Sections: In this option, there is no large lecture class, only multiple smaller sections, taught either by full-time faculty and/or TA's. This has the benefit of smaller classes, which eliminates most of the problems of student anonymity and passivity. But the cost of staffing this approach is very high.
IV. One Large Class, Structured Around Small Group Learning: In this option, the class remains together as one large class, as in Option I. But the dominant teaching/learning activity is carefully structured small group work, not lectures (Michaelsen, 1983). This approach has several benefits: (a) it eliminates the problems of student anonymity and passivity, (b) minimizes the logistics challenge, and (c) keeps staffing costs at a minimum. It does require a teacher who knows how to use small groups and can solve the problems involved in using this in large-class settings.

What one needs to do to make the large class a good course, then, depends on what choice one has made about course structure.

References:

1. "Team Learning in Large Classes" by Larry K. Michaelsen, Chapter 2 in Learning in Groups, New Directions for Teaching and Learning series, No. 14. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1983. Describes the special form of small group learning known as "Team Learning", procedures for using it, and the results of using it in large classes (e.g., 97% attendance with no penalty for absence, consistently rated in the 90% percentile on the IDEA course evaluation).

2. "Teaching Large Classes (How to Do It Well and Remain Sane)", by Karron G. Lewis, Chapter 25 in Handbook of College Teaching, edited by K.W. Prichard and R.McL. Sawyer. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994. An excellent overview of suggestions for teachers who opt for a traditional lecture approach, but includes several suggestions for including some active learning possibilities, e.g., writing, small group exercises.

3. "Preparing to Teach the Large Lecture Course", Chapter 12 in Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross Davis. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993. A very readable summary of tips for teaching a large class in the traditional lecture format.

4. "Why Classes Should be Small, but How to Help Your Students Be Active Learners Even in Large Classes," and "Large Classes: Morale, Discipline, and Order," Chapters 20 and 21 in Teaching Tips, 9th edition, by Wilbert J. McKeachie. Lexington, Mass: Heath, 1994. Deals with two issues: how to incorporate some active learning activities into large classes, and how to deal with morale and discipline problems when they do arise.