Too big

Brandon Carter

Although many believe that large classes are the best way to get the most students in front of the best teachers, this isn’t the case. According to Carl Wieman, who won the 2001 Nobel Prize as a physicist at Colorado, such successes are rare. Many students end up distracted by someone around them or get bored by the teacher.

For example, in classes of this size, it is difficult to hold the attention of students due to the fact that there are so many students. When you get a large number of students in one place it makes it much more difficult for the professor to keep his audience engaged in what he is teaching. Most of the time professors end up teaching to only a small portion of the class.

In addition in the USA Today an article by Justin Pope of the Associated Press discussed what some teachers are doing to try and help students. Some teachers try to depend solely upon technology to help them focus their student’s attention upon the lecture. While many times this technique ends up with students who are more distracted by the technology than helped by it, sometimes students are helped. For example, some teachers at the University of Colorado are finding that by incorporating technologies such as a clicker, a remote used to answer multiple choice questions posed during the lecture, they can now know when students grasp the concept and when they need additional teaching. Large classes may not be the best answer at this point and time, but with effort by colleges and teachers, this may one day change.