It is I, Yaro, and I am still abuzz from a very genial class yesterday.It has been eons since I taught a cohort of freshmen. But I have endeavoured to keep my colleagues happy by taking on a general education course that is at the heart of our curriculum.
Normally I have a stage, a tiny transmitting wireless lapel microphone, and scores of students in the recessed and darkened caverns of our largest classroom, but this semester my general education class meets in a tiny seminar room with a lovely window (that opens!) onto the lush northern quadrangle of our campus.
We started with 14 students, and I have been told that is a half dozen lighter than the normal "cap," but most days there are 10 of in toto.
It is lovely. I am so used to speaking for the entire period, that the give and take which is so natural in a small room with a happy group has made this my favorite hour of the slanting light late afternoon.
It made me wonder about the worlds the rest of you teach in. What, indeed, is the desired class size? How many is too many? How few is too few? Do you struggle with classes larger or smaller than is optimum? Have you fought any battles concerning class size?
And, should you care to comment, what about the actual classroom itself? How does that space affect your work as a member of the professoriate? As I mentioned, I normally teach in what would be charitably described as a bunker, with dim lighting and recirculated air. But this seminar room with carpet, comfortable seats, and an opening window seems like it was made for the Socratic tug-of-play that my freshmen and I spent so joyfully yesterday.
I take my leave, and thank you for your time.
Yaro
I teach relatively small classes (the usual caps are 19-25 depending on the exact class; caps are currently raised by one in response to budget woes -- and yes, my department tried to avoid doing that). Those numbers feel about right to me, especially since, as in your experience, not everybody comes on most days (however, I wouldn't mind having 15-20 students per class; much lower than that, and absences could undermine the possibility of having a real discussion).
ReplyDeleteThe main issue I have is how many sections in all, and therefore how many students in all, I teach each semester. The classes I teach are writing-intensive, and designed to provide students with lots of attention and feedback from the professor. But I teach 4 sections in all, which makes it hard to fulfill that promise. I find myself often reminding students of the overall numbers, as a way of explaining why I can't comment as often or as fully on their work as I would like, and many of them would like, too.
Classrooms with natural light, good ventilation, and some green in the view are a definite plus; they improve the atmosphere of otherwise-dead classes, and make livelier ones even more lively.
The desired class size, for pedagogical and teaching purposes, is one. Perhaps 2 - sometimes peer review works better. Indeed, this is the core idea behind the Oxbridge tutorials.
ReplyDeleteOf course, this would be like asking for slices of the moon for appetizer at department picnics.
Ditto, DrNathaniel.
ReplyDeleteYaro, *swoon*.
I teach writing-intensive classes. At my current institution, the enrollment cap is 26. At my previous institution, the cap was 27. At either institution, the ideal cap would be 20. One time, though, I had a class of 12. Oh, t'was heavenly.
ReplyDeleteYou know, this is an interesting question and I've thought much about it.
ReplyDeleteIt's going to vary from person to person (ah! individual differences!), but if for me, it would be ideal to have one of each: a ginormous class and a tiny one.
Why the ginormous class? I'm a performer of sorts. I have energy when I teach. I like to make my students laugh (or groan). The energy I got back from a class of hundreds was like doing stand-up or performing theater. We felt like a whole community. We laughed together, sighed together, got bored together... it's certainly not ideal for many people, and it's not ideal for certain classes (maybe only for an introductory level course that will be all scantron-grading)... but it can be fun in it's own way. It's difficult for me sometimes, at my little college, to gain energy and momentum off of the 13 quiet kids itching to text-message instead of pay attention. You know?
But then... as you say, there is a joy to the small class where every lecture is more like an engaging conversation. Maybe it's just a "grass is greeneer" thing, because I almost always have that! My biggest class is 25 strong.
As to room parameters... I just have to be able to wander. A lot. And occasionally flail about. I don't know how some teachers stand, unmoving, at a lectern for hours. Sunlight is nice, too, absolutely. And lots of whiteboards. Wall-too-wall wouldn't be too much. =)
Great topic, Yaro!
My ideal classroom has chalk boards on 3 sides and not so many chairs as to render two of the boards useless. As I am a mathematician I must write lots on the board. I like "spare" boards that I can put up things to which we will repeatedly refer.
ReplyDeleteI like there to be more chairs than students so that they may spread out enough so that they can all see the board. I like tables or bigger desks so that the students have more room to rest their arms and note books.
I like carpet so that I may draw on it with chalk. And because of my "dirty" habit I like there to be enough space at the front so that students can crowd around my floor art.
I like enough space between the desks that I can wonder and speak from every part of the room.
Class size is somewhat irrelevant since my school tends to cap at 30 or so. Size is less important than willingness to participate. I've had 30 student classes where everyone speaks and contributes. I've had classes of 10 where you can hear their neurons dying. The student make-up is what is important to me.
I had a class of 7 last term. We were in a "big" room but they all sat in the front three rows (slightly staggered so they could see). We laughed together. We experienced pain together. We pulled pranks together. They would all contribute and ask excellent questions. They'd meet in the library in groups to do HW. They's meet at 8AM in the math dept to do HW close to me. They were wonderful and I'd willing introduce each one as a son or daughter. The class was that great!
Yaro! Good to see you post again, and I am happy for you that you are having a good experience with a nice group of students in a suitably nice little room.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it's usually small, square rooms with fairly big windows on one wall. I usually teach in the same building that houses my department. I usually teach 25-30 students per writing or literature class.
I have just two complaints, and the conditions do not manifest themselves every term: 1) sometimes the rooms are too small to accommodate a very full (say, 30) students; 2) sometimes I get a room that is dummied, so that I don't have a computer station and projector screen, something that is actually a very big help with some of the student population I teach.
For the most part, though, I'm pretty lucky where I currently teach. At my most recent previous two schools, I was often in the basement, cramped in small rooms without windows or ventilation. (I was adjuncting then, which made a difference at each place, but something that doesn't matter where I am now because we have no such rooms here.)
I find classroom proximity to coffee and the restroom improves my mood significantly.
I'd happily go for the Oxbridge system, too. I like one-on-one conferencing, and I'm comfortable speaking to large groups (though I don't currently do much of it, at least not as part of my job). It's trying to generate discussion among students who haven't done the reading, let alone produced an essay or other reflective piece, that is difficult. My usual solution is in-class writing or group work in preparation for discussion, which seems to work, and, fortunately, is entirely appropriate in a composition classroom.
ReplyDeleteUgh, I want *your* jobs. I teach 100 at a time, and hate it. My discipline isn't even possible to practice by one-way transmission, so I end up doing this frantic Phil Donohue thing, racing up and down aisles with a microphone.
ReplyDeleteI don't really have an ideal. Like FQ I don't mind teaching the ginormous class. At my last job I would take my turn teaching the 300 student survey in the big auditorium. I did it without a mike, and I liked it. I didn't even mind the fact that in a room that size the students think you can't see them. I would look at the guy reading the paper, or the future NFL star sleeping in the corner and think "I'll get the last laugh when I fail you motherfucker." And I did.
ReplyDeleteAt my current job we don't have rooms that size, so the biggest classes I teach have 80. I could cap them at 35 or 40 if I wanted to, but once I'm lecturing I don't really care how many of them there are, and my chair loves me for boosting enrollments. I even manage to get them to participate sometimes. You know, that active learning bullshit.
The rooms are all the same, neither bad nor good. They all have windows that are screwed shut so that students can't jump out of them. Mostly they just look at the building across the street. What makes it hell is that 75% of the lecture rooms in the university are in a single tall building. So the students start lining up for the elevators 20 minutes before class, and the line can sometimes stretch out into the street. When I have a class on the fourth or fifth floor, I just take the stairs to avoid the endless elevator queue. When I have one on the ninth or tenth, I still take the stairs, but I do a lot of cursing of the registrar and various other assholes on the way up.
But I like seminars too, for some of the reasons Yaro mentions. I like the give and take, and I like making them defend their ideas right there on the spot. I usually have 15 in an undergraduate seminar, maybe 8-10 in a graduate seminar, although I have also once taught a grad seminar with 23. That sucked. The seminar room I most often teach in is a windowless bunker. I don't even mind that. Last year I had my undergraduate seminar in a room in the business school. It was just a much nicer version of a windowless bunker.
I guess what it comes down to is I like both kinds of classes. I like standing in front of a big audience, and I like guiding a small discussion without having to say too much beyond the occasional question or suggestion. If I only got to teach one kind, I'd be sad, or go a little mad. But I've never been fussed about the room.
I have a personal opinion that classes larger than 35 (45 at a push) might as well be taught on television, for all of the feedback that occurs.
ReplyDeleteAs for 'writing intensive', the math classes that I teach are that large. Each week, I grade at least 3 pages of work from each student, much of which is proofs and project reports, which I correct for both grammar and content.
I teach high school English. I have 96 sophomores, parceled out in classes of 36, 36, and 24 (last period of the day). I am collecting 96 essays tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI have 71 AP seniors and 71 papers in my bag right now. Classes were unbalanced at 41 and 31, but they took some out of one class to transfer to the other. One kid had to drop because his schedule didn't work.
I don't envy your large course loads; I do envy the breaks between classes though. And TAs. How I'd love a reliable one to help with these papers.
I don't want windows to distract them or me, but I do like a little real light.
ReplyDeleteI actually have taught a class in a bunker after we had to go there because of a truck being blown up off-base. I taught part of a class this month while wearing body armor. And I had one base where I slept in the same tent where we had classes.
So now if the power works, the AC is cold, the whiteboard is attached to the wall, and we aren't being mortared...I'm pretty much good.