Large Lecture Classes

Brenden Duncombe-Smith

Everyone who has ever attended a college class is painfully aware of how large some of the introductory lecture classes can be. Unfortunately, these large classes have become necessary because of the large amount of students that are required to take those introductory classes. Some believe that these large lecture classes are a perfect opportunity to get well qualified professors speaking to a large group of students. However, most people believe that the large class sizes negatively affect a student's ability to learn. The main reason for this belief is the fact that large classes make for an environment with very little interaction between students and the professor. I have seen this first hand, during large lectures I notice that a large number of students are either doing other work, on Facebook, or sleeping. The reason that the problem of large class sizes still persists is because the solutions are just too expensive for the majority of colleges to successfully implement. The USA Today notes that Nobel laureate Carl Wieman is urging for reform in the teaching style of large lectures. Most notably is the use of personal response systems to instantly poll classes to see if the students are grasping the material in real time. Wieman believes that these and other tools that help students interact with the professor are the key to increasing a student's understanding of the material. Whatever the eventual solution may be, low cost solutions like the personal response system and other technological tools promise to be a key factor in solving the problem.