A Model for Teaching Large Classes: Facilitating a “Small Class Feel”

Abstract

This paper presents a model for teaching large classes that facilitates a “small class feel” to counteract the distance, anonymity, and formality that often characterize large lecture-style courses in higher education. One author (E.P.) has been teaching a 300-student general education critical thinking course for ten years, and the other (R.L.) has assisted in the administration and instruction of said course for four years. Detailed here is an instructional model, developed over a period of ten years, for teaching large classes that is more active, conversational, and characterized by stronger relationships between students and instructors than is typically found in large courses offered in higher education. This model relies on the role of teaching assistants and graders, small group work, instructor presence, writing skills support, student mentoring, and large class discussion, among others.