Engaging Large Classes: Strategies and Techniques for College Faculty
Edited by Stanley & Porter

Review by Jan Keith Farmer

Every faculty member I have ever known wants his or her students to be successful. With this passion in mind I believe, more than ever, educators have a “learner centered” rather than “teacher centered” paradigm. Unfortunately large classes are a fact of life in today’s higher education institutions and many faculty members think they must compromise their beliefs and revert back to “teacher centered” behaviors when teaching large classes. Lecture in large classes is such a compromise. Wyckoff (2001) found that lecture is the dominant teaching method in large group university classrooms.

But this need not be the case. The book Engaging Large Classes: Strategies and Techniques for College Faculty offers a variety of cross-disciplinary strategies for “learner centered” large classes in higher education. Higher education faculty will appreciate the balance of research literature and shared strategies from various content areas and institutional settings.

The authors suggest you begin by developing appropriate goals, outcomes, and instructional strategies to teach a large class. This simple but important task will result is a “learner centered” syllabus that becomes a “contract between the instructor and the students”.

The contributing authors in this text believe that experienced large-class teachers can be a valuable source of information. Experienced large-class teachers have suggestions for strategies that they have found successful. The authors also believe that the development of collegiality across disciplines with faculty peers who teach large classes is one of the most rewarding aspects of this improvement process.

The size of some large classes is a challenge for both faculty and students. “Many students see the large class as an opportunity for anonymity and passivity. Reducing student anonymity involves developing creative strategies to capture and hold their attention and increasing motivation by getting to know the students as individuals.” Develop a method that works for you. Some suggestions by the authors include the following:
• Use index cards with basic information about each student along with a picture to help you recognize faces.
• Ask students to remind you of their names when they see you.
• Encourage students to greet you on campus and talk for a minute or two.
• Make plans to see students before and after class.
• Encourage students to come to office hours with you and the graduate teaching assistants (TAs).

A small amount of attention, like getting to know students names and their reasons for taking the course helps manage large classes and creates an atmosphere of civility. Other suggestions that attend to classroom management are:
• Let students know what to expect and when.
• Clarify course expectations in the syllabus.
• Establish guidelines for appropriate behavior during class.
• Review the attendance policy.
• Share your philosophy of teaching.
• Seek feedback from students and colleagues.
• Devise effective ways of distributing information and exams to the students to lessen chaos and lost class time.
• Work closely with TAs.

As stated earlier, lecture continues to be the predominant teaching strategy for large classes. To improve learning in large classes the authors of this book agree that active learning strategies must be implemented. Among the many suggestions for active learning and engagement that authors suggest using are:
• Creative learning scenarios from business fairs.
• Real world assignments
• Assignments requiring teamwork
• Free writing
• Think-pair-share
• Role plays
• Debates
• Hypo teams
• Academic controversies
• Undergraduate peer tutors
• Interactive technology
Active learning strategies can work well in large classes but they must be preplanned, monitored, and assessed.

The authors of this book suggest that technology be used in accordance with course and learning goals to organize the course and provide timely feedback for instructor and students. Technology is used most efficiently for short intervals in the classroom and remains a means to vary the presentation of information for students. Instructors are the key to student learning and technology is a creative and powerful tool.

Most large classes still test via multiple-choice test; however, other activities that provide additional ways to assess student learning can also be used in large group situations. Multiple-choice test tend to measure mere intake of information rather than meaningful understanding. “Although they reduce administrative problems for the large-class instructor, (multiple choice tests) do not take into consideration the magnitude of diverse student learners”. When instructors assign grades to active leaning activities they enhance student feedback on learning and retention of course content.

Large classes are a fact of life in higher education today. Engaging Large Classes: Strategies and Techniques for College Faculty offers a blueprint for concerned faculty to develop more engaging “learner centered” environments. The good news is that all faculty members want their students to succeed. Engaging Large Classes provides those who teach in a large group setting specifics suggestions to become better teachers by providing more challenging and safer experiences for students.

Reference:
Wyckoff, Susan (2001).Changing the culture of undergraduate science teaching. Journal of College Science Teaching. 30, 301-312.

Title: Engaging Large Classes: Strategies and Techniques for College Faculty
Author: Stanley & Porter (Editors)
Price: $ 40.00 (US)
Publisher: Anker Publishing Company, Inc.
Year: 2007
Pages: 353
ISBN: 1-882982-51-7