Documentation:FlISWModuleLargeClassess101Kat

Time to complete this module

15 minutes

Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, you will be able to

Name at least 5 different lecture styles and recognize the ones most often used in your discipline
Identify and discuss strategies for addressing at least one challenge which might come up in teaching a large classroom in your discipline

Reflect

Take a moment and try to think of a large class, what do you imagine?
How often have you been a learner in a large class that was a lecture? How did you experience learning in it?

Read

"…The ‘transfer of information’ model of instructions, which casts the student as a dry sponge who passively absorbs facts and ideas from a teacher, has ruled higher education for 600 years, since the days of the medieval Schoolmen who, in their lectio mode, stood before a room reading a book aloud to the assembly – no questions permitted. The modern version is the lecture." (Eric Mazur, 2012)

"The lecture is probably the oldest teaching method and still the method most widely used in universities throughout the world." (McKeachie and Svinicki, 2006, p.57)

And, there are some good reasons. Besides the expediency of economy of scale that conveys even to the largest audience knowledge (the first and a critical level of Bloom’s taxonomy), lectures can benefit learners in multiple aspects. When done well, the best lectures:

Impart new information
Explain, clarify and organize difficult concepts
Model a creative mind at work or the problem-solving process
Analyze and show relationships among seemingly dissimilar ideas
Inspire a reverence for learning
Challenge beliefs and habits of thinking, and
Breed enthusiasm and motivation for further study.

(from P. Frederick “The Lively Lecture – 8 Variations”, College Teaching, Vol.34 (2), published by the HELDREF PUBLICATIONS, 4000 Albemarle Street, N.W., Washington, D.D. 20016.)

In addition, not every lecture is the same. As different students learn from diverse approaches, so are there diverse ways to teach. 5 examples include:

The Exquisite Oral Essay

Traditional lecture
Treats a single intellectual question or problem
Has unity: the topic is introduced, illustrated, and concluded within a course period
Although inspirationally masterful, reduces students to passive observers, who are engaged at best in an internal dialogue

Problem Solving: Demonstrations, Proofs, and Stories

Lecture begins with a question, or a paradox, or an enigma, or a compelling unfinished human story, a problem that inspires student interest and requires resolving
Solving the problem, depending on the discipline, may require a scientific demonstration, a mathematical proof, an economic model, the outcome of the novel's plot, or an historical narrative
While instructor presents the problem, students are asked to supply suggestions for the solution

Textual Exegesis: Modeling Analytical Skills

By reading and analyzing a text together, students can develop good reading and comprehension skills by seeing them modeled
Students can then be formed into groups to work through further passages
Variation on this approach: uses the class period to model other analytical skills to students, quantitative analysis of graphs, charts and tables, maps, interview schedules, and even interpretation of polling data

Cutting Large Classes in Half Without Losing Control: Debates

Students can either be assigned a side of an issue to support, or they can come to class prepared to take a seat on one particular side of an issue
Instructor can serve as the moderator and mediator, guiding the debate process such that each side gets equal time for presentation and rebuttal

Smaller Groups in Large Classes: Simulations and Role Playing

Simulations generally begin with a mini-lecture that clearly establishes the context and setting for the role playing
Then class is divided into a number of small groups, each representing a clearly designated role
Each group is assigned a specific, concrete task, usually to propose a position and course of action
Proposals from different groups will inevitably conflict with each other in some way: ideologically, tactically, racially, regionally, or over scarce resources

Share

Please share your answers to the following questions, using the Comments text box below this page (please do not forget to repeat your discipline again, thanks!).

Which lecture style or combination from the 5 examples mentioned above is most frequently practiced in your discipline? (while you were a learner or how do you teach?)
What is the largest class size you currently teach or expect to teach in your discipline?
What is the most outstanding challenge you have encountered or expect to encounter in a large classroom in your discipline? (Alternatively, if you cannot mention a challenge here, you can also write down your biggest question you may have for teaching large classes.)

Go Further

‘The Change-up in Lectures’, full article by Joan Middendorf & Alan Kalish
‘Large Classes: A Teaching Guide’, from Teaching & Learning Transformation Center, University of Maryland