Challenges of Teaching Large Classes
As the number of students increases, some complex challenges related to teaching and learning processes occur.I want to highlight this issue because it is one of the common situation in public schools.Let's look at some of them which were published by the UNESCO;
- Students become faces instead of people
- Giving individual guidance and advice to students become harder.
- Scheduling for some necessary appointment becomes more challenging.
- Some technical problems can occur.
- Recording attendence becomes harder and as a result of them students were stimulated not to attend class.
- Handling with classroom materials and assignment becomes harder for teacher.
- Less qualified feedbacks for students occurs
As a result of these situations which are caused by large number of students performance of both teacher and the learner will reduce.To prevent this reduction in performance there are some usefull tips to increase effective teaching and learning.
Tips for Teaching Large Classes More Efficiently
- Make sure that the lecture rewards students for being present.
- Give more importance to first class while working with large class rather than small class.
- Use more variable tecniques while teaching.
- Give more importance to clarity while grading and devising assignments
- Accomodating diversity should be included.
- Be more carefull while deciding the tests and exams.
- More materials that provide two-way communication(such as tests, assignments, etc) should be used.
- Teaching assistant is needed.
- Great deal of time and care to run smoothly.
- Use course websites to promote the communication between teacher and the students.
- Use online learning communities to promote the communication within the students.
In the light of these informations, having large number of students can be a disadvantage for both teacher and the students.However, it is not a thing that cannot be prevented.Using helpfull tecniques which are based on tips can be very helpful to reduce the negative conseqeuences of working with large number of students in class.
Reference List
- Iipinge, S. M. (2013). Challenges of large class teaching at the university: implications for continious staff development activities.
- Michelson, W. (2003). Meeting the challenges of larger classes. Educational Advisory Commitee, 1-8.
Reflection Paper for Seth Godin's Speech
In this speech, Seth Codin aimed to emphasize and mention what school's for.Under this title, he mentioned about many subtitles which are common beliefs about education system and school in America. In fact, there are many similarities in terms of these beliefs between America and Turkey.In this paper, I will give my own examples about similar beliefs and try to evaluate them in terms of competence and effectiveness of teacher.
First example is related to Godin's idea of textbook.He told that think about a situation that a person want to learn how to play baseball.In this situtation how much a texbook is beneficial for this person.By giving this example, he criticized the effectiveness of textbooks. Related to this topic, I have taken Germany course for four years in my high school.However, our Germany teacher, only, was coming to class, telling us to open spefic page of the book and write them down to our notebook. Before the exams, he was giving us 50 questions which are in multiple choice format and he asks the questions which are among these 50 questions. In conclusion, I do not remember more than basics words for Germany.Also, this example is good to illustrate Godin's another idea.He argued that if the issue is someone's job, everyone try to figure out how to do less.Again, our Germany teacher did not spend any effort to teach something to us. Although it is a sharp and unordinary examples, using textbooks for teaching without any flexibility or different tecniques to teach something is not usefull at all. In terms of competence of a teacher , this behavior do not foster students learning. Moreover, if you ask someone that do you think a teacher who use textbook for teaching students is a good or bad one, many people will respond to this questions by saying that there is no problem about using textbooks.
Another personal example is about Godin's idea about distintiveness of good and famous college.I have studied in Milli Piyango Anatolian High School and I wanted to pass Atatürk Anatolian High School which is very famous one in İzmir.When I went to talk with manager about requirements and to obtain informations about school, the manager told me 'Well, Atatürk Anatolian High Scholl is like a brand.If you carry it on your collar, it will provide a opportunity to become better than other'.In fact, I was impressed by this quotation.However, now, I can see that this does not mean anything.Similarly, if you asked any people to tell best high school in İzmir, many people will respond with Atatürk Anatolian High School.
My final example is about my university experiences.There was a teacher and she was very distracted by my questions in classroom and I am usually active during lessons.Whenever I asked an question to her, her uncomfortableness was very obvious.After a while, she started to scold me during the lessons and one the she humiliated me in the classroom by making labeling.After that, I went to talk with this issue and she told me 'You should decide the reason to come class whether to learn something or to test my knowledge.You are always unrespectful toward me and that's enough''.I was shocked because this was the first time that I have problem with my any teacher.Similary, this attitude does not foster students' learning, too.
However, there is a idea that I do not agree with Godin.According to him, multiple choices should not be used anymore because experience is more crucial than score.I agree that a test score is not everyhing.Yet, each student can have different ways to express their informations.For example, I am very bad in multiple choices.In this case, I think a exam should be combination of multiple choices and open - ended questions to give each students the same chance.
To sum up, I want to highlight that, being a competent teacher by challenge with statu quo is possible and, actually, in most cases it is the only way to become one in Turkey.
Personal Profile
My name is Hazal Kahraman. I was born on 24/04/1991 and I am from İzmir, Turkey. Nowadays, I am fourth year student of Psychology Department in Middle East Technical University, North Cyprus Campus.
I am proud of myself because my dreams will comes true in nearly four months later. I am one of the people who decided about ideal job, which is psychologist, in childhood. At the same time, I feel a little upset because my university live is almost over, too. That's all what I can say about myself in a short version.
