A few semesters ago, I found myself caught in what I now call a fairness trap. Teaching qualitative research methods to over 150 undergraduates (equivalent to three sections), I tried to recreate the close mentoring I’d experienced during my doctoral training. I began meeting more
About a year ago, I decided to combine the ideas of a syllabus activity and a get-to-know-students activity. Using Microsoft Forms, I created an introductory exercise to share with students a week before the first day of classes. This optional activity included short videos related
As educators, we’ve often found that one of the greatest impediments to creativity in the classroom is, quite literally, the classroom. At a large public university, where class sizes of 80 students are on the smaller side, it can be hard to come to
At this point, clickers and other electronic tools that encourage student interaction are accepted instructional practices and commonly used in large courses. What they offer that other instructional strategies don’t is a means for every student to participate. Their effects are also relatively easy to
Concern over large courses (especially required ones) persists even as their economic viability has made them an increasingly accepted part of higher education. We’re not expecting them to go away any time soon, but that doesn’t minimize the challenges associated with teaching and learning in
Here’s a set of questions about large classes that I’m thinking we ought to be discussing more than we are.
1. How many students make it a large class? Teachers who do and don’t teach large classes have their opinions, but it’s not clear who
