NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/misc/educatio/4376

Text File | 1992-11-18 | 2.6 KB | 50 lines

Newsgroups: misc.education
Path: sparky!uunet!clarkson!woodbe
From: [e-mail] (Brian E. Wood)
Subject: Re: Proof that small classes=better education?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Nntp-Posting-Host: craft.camp.clarkson.edu
Organization: Clarkson University
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 18:58:58 GMT
Lines: 37


I'm a student who is new to this newsgroup, but is interested in education.
My father is a high school teacher, and while I don't plan on teaching high
school, I am interested in maximizing the effects of both my studies and that
of those both around me and those I may eventually "teach" in some manner.

While I do not know the complete side of the teacher, I do know that the classes
I most look forward to are the classes I have with no more than 15-20 students.
Even if the class has a lecture-type format, as do my current classes, there is
still more room for discussion and questioning than in the large class to 20+.
Of coursee the large class number is arbitrary, but I recall that my favorite
classes were those that were small in number.  While I have no statistics to
back up my point, it seems that of my friends, almost all of them prefer small
groups to lecture halls, or even 30 people.  My girlfriend, a business major,
(I'm a physics major myself, sorry for not mentioning that earlier), is jealous
of my class schedule in that my largest class has about 18 students, and that
is not a physics class, there it being about 8-9, and her classes generally
have at least 20 students, and are probably closer to 40, per class, and all
these are at the junior level.

It is a valid point that many teachers do not take advantage of the small
classroom, and I think that is a shame.  A good teacher-led discussion greatly
increases interest in the topic, and allows the students to wrestle with the
issues, not just have them handed to them for memorization and acceptance.
While I will admit that this cannot always work, either because the students
don't want to participate or because the subject matter doesn't lend to that
style of teaching (like I can't see a teacher discussing calculus with students
on form and meaning, but questioning is important), I think the best classes are
taught in small settings.

This is just the humble opinion of a junior at Clarkson University.

BTW I wish I had been here for the beginning of the discussion.

Brian E. Wood        [e-mail]