How large is a class to be considered a large one? It is a relative answer. There is no quantitative definition of what constitutes a large class. Every culture has its own opinion toward large classes, in Europe a class with 20 students is considered as large class, but in china the large class has between 50-100 students. To be more specific a large class is one with students than the teacher prefers to manage and available resources can support. Different problems would face the teacher in large classes such as loss of control and management, there would be more distractions, and high noise level where some large classes may become out of hand when students are working in pairs or groups. In my opinion large classes provide more opportunities for co-students' interaction in which it creates an atmosphere of cooperation, and encourage creativity. It is important to notice that difficulties associated with large classes can also be found in small classes, so we should not only see one face which is the negative one, but we should see it's good and positive face which provides many opportunities for learning and teaching.
Large classes is like any other challenges that any teacher could face and especially novice ones. large classes are not defined with a well known number of students in the class; thus the term large class is a relative term. Teachers shouldn't be afraid of dealing with large classes or make it a struggle in their way. Teachers should have a repertoire of different strategies and skills in order to be able to manage a large class, and should design activities that would allow all the students in the class engaged and enjoy learning. In this way the teacher wold have less management problems in the class.
ReplyDeleteBoth large classes and small classes have problems. But the teacher should be a good manager and controller of the class because its not related to the number of the students in the class but to the strategies and ways that the teacher uses. The teacher should always keep the students busy in working, doing activities or projects so they will not have time to get bored or do problems and they will feel more engaged in the learning process.
ReplyDeleteI still remember the presentation about large classes that you did in the classroom management class. It is such a controversial issue and teachers suffer from large classes. It is a challenging factor that disturbs classroom management and consequently influences the reception of information and knowledge. Teachers should grab students' attention as much as possible to provide a comfortable atmosphere. As we concluded "large" is a relative number where it varies from one persons' perspective to another.
ReplyDeleteMost teachers agree that teaching a small group of students is easier, more enjoyable, and less time consuming than teaching a large group.There's advantages of large classes as more participate, more energy in the class.
ReplyDeleteAlways a smaller class is better, I think that there will be lesser distractions in a small class and the teacher will have only got few students to focus on. That helps him/her to devote more to students...
ReplyDeleteAlthough large classes are perceived as problematic and may endure the teacher with a lot of stress to cope with, actually present a lot of opportunities for the students to interact with each other, and where there is social interaction learning is improved, plus, it's a great chance for the teacher to do group works and offer students the chance to help each other out and make use of every student's potential.
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