Web Resources on Teaching Large Classes

Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence (The Pennsylvania State University)

Learn how to actively engage students in large classes by using strategies that will allow you to break up your lecture, assess your student's understanding, and engage them in learning.

Transforming Big Classes (by Ken Bain, from Montclair State University)

Teaching Large Classes (with Graham Gibbs, The Open University, UK)

This 14-minute video provides a brief overview of concerns and problems associated with teaching large (lecture) classes as well as possible solutions or practical methodologies and strategies faculty can use to make the learning more effective and meaningful. (Requires Real Player)

Teaching Large Classes AUTC Project (The University of Queensland, Australia)

The Teaching Large Classes project was funded by the Australian Universities Teaching Committee (AUTC), a national body aimed at improving teaching and learning in Australian universities, through the identification of emerging issues in teaching and learning, supporting the identification of effective strategies for enhancing learning, and encouraging the dissemination and adoption of these methods across the Australian university sector.

A Survival Handbook for Teaching Large Classes (University of North Carolina Charlotte)

This handbook is a cafeteria of ideas of how faculty members all over the country have tried to solve many of the problems related to teaching large classes. Decide which one or ones are most likely to work for you, and try them.

Teaching Large Classes (University of Western Ontario)

The purpose of this site is to get large class teachers in whatever discipline talking to one another, and learning from one another, forging a closer community with a common cause: to make learning in large classes as effective, productive, and enjoyable as possible.

Teaching Large Classes (Carleton College)

These resources can help you keep your students actively engaged and minimize the time you spend grading, effectively and efficiently.

Books on Teaching Large Classes

Carborne, E. (1998). Teaching large classes: Tools and strategies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

You have finished your Ph.D. and landed your first academic job. Scanning the fine print, you realize the introductory class you have been assigned to teach is being held in an auditorium. A really big auditorium. Panic begins to set in. . . . In this handy and practical book, Elisa Carbone offers a wealth of sound advice on how to deal with a large class, from the first day to end-of-semester evaluations. Full of examples taken from many different disciplines, Teaching Large Classes will be an ideal companion for any teacher facing the challenge of the large introductory class.

Cherian, M., & Mau, R. (2002). Teaching large classes: usable practices from around the world. Singapore: McGraw-Hill Education.

This book offers examples of practices in non-western, less affluent and more crowded parts of the world, e.g. rural villages and townships in Lesotho and South Africa, and large cities such as Beijing, China and Mumbai, India.

• Individual chapters are devoted to teacher-student relationships, children with special needs, cooperative learning, and authentic assessments.
• A chapter introduces the principles and practices of the highly successful Waldorf Schools, the largest independent school movement in the world.
• The story of two schools in Israel illustrates the potential for dramatically improving the quality of life for both teachers and students.
• Three pilot projects demonstrate the value of working in partnership with local communities to incorporate indigenous knowledge and experience into curricula.

Cooper, J., MacGregor, J., Robinson, P., & Smith, K. (2000). Strategies for energizing large classes: From small groups to learning communities. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

The large introductory lecture classes common on most college campuses pose a particular challenge to instructors who want to encourage active student involvement that is a vital part of the learning process. This much-needed volume shows how instructors can energize students in these courses through the innovative use of small-group teaching strategies and new curricular structures. They provide detailed descriptions of both informal, turn-to-your-neighbor activities and more formal and intensive small group approaches that have succeeded in making students more active and engaged learners. They also examine efforts to give students in large classes a greater sense of belonging by creating a community of learners through such techniques as intensive supplemental workshops, clustering multiple classes, and providing answers to frequently asked questions about using small-group learning in large group settings. This is the 81st issue of the quarterly journal  "New Directions For Teaching and Learning".

Porter, E., & Stanley, C. (2007). Engaging large classes: Strategies and techniques for college faculty. Boston, MA: Anker Publishing Company.

Large classes have become a common reality in colleges and universities across America. Even as academic funding has decreased, class enrollments have continued to rise. Although students, teachers, and administrators are often concerned by the potentially negative impact of uneven teacher-to-student ratios, large classes also offer many potential advantages that are less recognized and not always maximized.

In Engaging Large Classes, the authors demonstrate how large classes can be just as stimulating and rewarding as smaller classes. Written by experienced teachers of large classes across a wide range of disciplines and institutions, this book provides faculty members and administrators with instructional strategies and advice on how to enhance large class settings.

• This book summarizes many of the core issues related to successfully teaching large classes, including
• An honest review of the advantages and disadvantages of large classes
• Advice on how to design, plan, manage, and fairly assess large classes
• The universality of large-class issues across disciplines, from classroom management to working with teaching assistants
• Strategies for using classroom technology, active learning, and collaborative learning
• Seventeen detailed examples of large classes from a range of higher education institutions

The authors not only present an overview of research on teaching large classes, they also equip readers with helpful insight into the mechanics of large-class pedagogy. This book has the potential to change the way academia views the reality of teaching large classes.

Articles on Teaching Large Classes

Auslander, G. K. (2000). Using large classes to positive advantage: Involving students as research subjects and active learners. Social Work Education, 19 (4), 375-385.

Geske, J. (1992). Overcoming the drawbacks of the large lecture class. College Teaching, 40 (4), 51.

Harwood, W. S. (1996). The one-minute paper. Journal of Chemical Education, 73(3), 229.

MacGregor, J. (2000). Restructuring large classes to create communities of learners. New Directions for Teaching & Learning, 81, 47-62.

Straits, W. (2007). "She's teaching me:" Teaching with care in a large lecture course. College Teaching, 55 (4), 170-175.

Wingert, D. (2007). Actively engaging large classes in the sciences. Teaching Professor, 21, 1-3.

Yazedjian, A., & Kolkhorst, B. B. (2007). Implementing small-group activities in large lecture classes. College Teaching, 55 (4), 164-169.

Yuretich, R. (2004). Encouraging critical thinking. Journal of College Science Teaching, 33, 40-45.