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Instructional-Related Factors. Teaching Large Classes
Teaching a large class is a big problem for both teachers and students due to a number of shortcomings, three of which are pinpointed by Blatchford et al. (2007) as follows. First, classroom management is rather difficult in large classes. Second, teacher-student relationship is affected negatively, especially with shy students who suffer a lot because they cannot participate and question what they do not understand. Teachers’ use of time for marking, planning, and assessment is a problematic issue in large classes. Moreover, teachers find it hard to encourage and involve students’ interests in large classes (Ballantyne et al., 2000). Additionally, Bourke (1986) reported that large classes cause some problems such as noise tolerated, non-academic management, and teacher lecturing or explaining. Finally, feeling anonymous and interpersonally distant from the teacher can be harmful to students struggling with course material (Isbell & Cote, 2009). To avoid most of these problems, it is recommended that class size should be manageable to help students learn and graduate successfully (Roettger et al., 2007) or effective teachers’ training workshops should be held to train teachers on classroom management techniques that suit large classes. Teaching in large classes affects teachers’ use of teaching methods. Lecturing is the main teaching method and the most common form of communication used in universities (Edwards et al., 2001; McGarr, 2009). There are many reasons for this. First, a lecture is relatively inexpensive and does not need much preparation time in comparison to other teaching methods (Kozma et al., 1978). Second, it can be useful if the lecturer finds links between what is being taught and students’ prior knowledge and relate this to real life experiences to help make knowledge significant (Dolnicar, 2005). Moreover, it can be a venue for students to explore their journey into complex knowledge (Laing, 1968). Finally, lecturing could be seen as a more convenient way of transferring knowledge to large classes (McGarr, 2009). It was explicitly stated that Egyptian university lecturers use lecturing as the main teaching method to overcome the problem of large classes (Holliday, 1996). In addition, Al-Ashkar (2010) has referred to large classes as one of the challenges facing future teachers and their students in Egypt. Despite considering lectures as one of the strongest methodologies used in higher education 64 institutions (Moore et al., 2008), it is not an excuse for Egyptian university teachers to use it all the time. It is not the best available option in all educational contexts at the different educational stages as it does not suit all purposes of teaching or all students’ learning styles. This denotes that university teachers are recommended to use varied teaching methods to differentiate their instruction to suit large classes. In the current study, the problem of large classes is one of the problems facing the Egyptian educational systems at both the pre-university and university levels. Due to the over-population problem in Egypt, classes at the pre-university stages range from 60-80 in different areas. This is also reflected in the large classes that are crowded with students at the university level in general and at the essay writing classes at the concerned faculty of education in particular. Therefore, there is a need to address this problem at the pre-university stages by allocating funds to build more schools and expand the existing one so that classes do not exceed 35 students. To cope with the current status, teachers’ training providers need to equip teachers with a number of class management and teaching strategies that they could use to overcome the problem of large classes. At the university level, I think it is important to employ a sufficient number of teaching assistants to help university lecturers with their classroom management, teaching and assessment practices. This will help improve students’ learning experiences.
Literature
1.R. Tanner & C. Green. Tasks for Teacher Education.
2. Jeremy Harmer. How to teach English.
3. D. H. Graves, A Fresh Look at Writing (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1994).
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