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This Website offers a variety of
discussion activities,
recommended options, and other resources
to help you explore some of these important and challenging aspects of class
size: student/faculty ratio; faculty workload; student
workload; learning styles; teaching styles; technology options;
faculty governance;...
There are many ways to structure a discussion
about class size and the quality of learning/teaching in online and
hybrid/blended courses. There are almost as many different motivations and
goals for addressing these issues as there are stakeholders in the results of
the dialogue. Some approaches are more likely to facilitate civil and
constructive dialogue. Others are more likely to bury opportunities for
real solutions.
"Clothing the Emperor" approach to Dangerous
Discussions issues:
Replace incorrect, inflammatory, extreme
statements/views with realistic, balanced, civil, and constructive conversation.
[1st Online Workshop
Session February 8, 2006.
2nd Online
Workshop Sessions April 6, 13, 20 ]
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Click here, and see
below, for more ways of asking/answering alternative
questions about class size!
Help in finding
solutions that are
Low-Threshold, Incremental, Pragmatic, Flexible,
Collaborative, Reasonable, Respectful! And see this table of options
that summarizes these results and extends them to
faculty/professional development programs!
We hope to help you minimize unnecessary acrimony
and maximize constructive give and take - to help you eliminate the flames,
reduce the heat, and illuminate the real solutions.
We begin with a
list of alternative ways of asking the central questions.
Please examine what we offer, adopt what you find useful, and let us know about
improvements you recommend or additional requests.
Click here to send email to gilbert@tltgroup.org.
Click here for other "Dangerous
Discussions" topics/questions for faculty, administration, and staff
- (especially, about Teaching, Learning, and Technology)
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Discussion Activities
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Discussion
Activity - Sample List of Factors, Resources, ... that Influence Making
Class Size Larger (or Smaller)
Click here for
PDF version of Worksheet to be used in Factor/Resource Discussion Activity
Factors/Resources
Click on each of the following for more explanation
below
-
MISSION, GOALS, EXPECTATIONS
Institutional Mission,
Expectations, Goals (for Courses, Faculty, Students)
(Course Purpose, Nature; Consequences of Learning/Missing
Material)
-
CONTENT
-
STRUCTURE,
METHODOLOGY, MEDIA
Institutional Policies (e.g., minimum attendance); Sampling,
etc.
-
INSTITUTIONAL RESOURCES
Institutional Resources; Instructional Materials
Support Services, Infrastructure, ..Instructional Materials
readily available from .... sources internal, external, professional
organizations, publishers, colleagues; .
-
FACULTY
Individuals & Collaboration
Includes different styles, needs, workload, capabilities, attitudes
of faculty
-
LEARNERS
Individuals & Cohorts
[Click here for more about
Learning/Teaching Cohorts]
Includes different styles, needs, workload, capabilities, attitudes of learners
-
Other?
Which of these factors
needs more explanation? Which are most important to you?
Which are most relevant at your institution?
What needs to be added to or removed from this list?
LEARNERS: INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS, RESPONSIBILITIES, ROLES, COHORTS
-
Learner Responsibility
(small group work; learning by teaching)
Extent to which students can learn effectively by working independently
or in small
groups; extent to which students can learn more deeply or broadly
by teaching their peers in a course - especially
within small groups...
-
“Student Development”
[Training students in learning techniques they can apply in most
courses... Meta-cognition, …]
-
Characteristics: of
Individuals - Both Learners and Teachers
Of individual learners; of particular
group(s) of learners; .[possibly reflective of stereotypical attributes
of group - e.g., comp. sci. majors as asocial non-verbal geeks, ...] vs.
Ability to work independently - to enjoy and take advantage of flexible
schedule & pace
-
Workload
How will any changes in teaching/learning processes affect the learners'
workloads? How will they respond to increases or decreases in
their workloads?
FACULTY: INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS, RESPONSIBILITIES, ROLES,
COLLABORATION
-
Over-Conscientious
Faculty
Faculty members who set standards too high for themselves and/or for
their students; e.g., expecting to interact individually with every
student every day...
-
Under-Conscientious
Faculty
Faculty members who set standards too low for themselves and/or for
their students; e.g., not initiating enough interaction with
individual students to avoid being surprised when someone drops out of
the course or fails an important assignment when it is too late to
catch up.
-
Characteristics: of
Individuals - Both Learners and Teachers
Of individual teachers; of particular
group(s) of teachers; .[possibly reflective of stereotypical attributes
of group - e.g., comp. sci. faculty as asocial non-verbal geeks, ...] vs.
Ability to work collaboratively - to enjoy and take advantage of
teamwork in spite of reduce individual flexibility.
-
Workload
How will any changes in teaching/learning processes affect the teachers'
workloads? How will they respond to increases or decreases in
their workloads?
EXPECTATIONS, GOALS,
KINDS OF EDUCATION
-
Expectations: Faculty,
Students, Others?
Expectations about frequency, quality of interactions with...?
Expectations based primarily on previous personal experience?
Expectations based primarily on the influence of others, media, etc.?
Extent to which students' expectations about course structures,
assignments, collaborative learning, etc. make it easy or difficult for
a teacher to guide and modify the kinds of individual interaction
required for course-related activities.
Extent to which faculty members' expectations about student behavior,
preferences, and capabilities limit choices about teaching/learning
activities that require different kinds and amounts of individual
interaction between students and faculty.
-
Access vs. Delivery vs.
Engagement (Training vs. Educating?)
Relevance of each major kind of teaching/learning (providing access to
information, delivering knowledge, and engaging people). How well
do different combinations of them fit with different teaching/learning
situations? For more on this, click
here.
-
Need to Build Trust
To what extent is the success of an educational approach dependent on building trust
among participants?
-
Demand for Course
[specialized advanced vs. general education requirement; within small
geographic area vs. worldwide]
SAMPLING
-
Sampling vs. Covering –
Setting Reasonable Limits for Interaction in a Course
Every teacher
makes sampling decisions about almost every aspect of teaching and learning:
selecting a group of topics, a group of students' responses, some
portions of students' work, some individual students, etc. to deal with
as a meaningful representative of the full collection of such items or
people. For example, during a traditional classroom discussion, a
teacher may invite only a few students to respond to a few questions
about a reading assignment that was to be completed in preparation for
the class.
Traditionally this has applied primarily to
choices about topics to be covered in assigned readings, discussions,
laboratory work, and classroom presentations within a course. However,
educational conditions are changing so that teachers and learners have
many more choices about what, how, and when to learn and to teach – and
about what, how, and when to interact with each other. The sampling
decisions have become more important and more dangerous to leave to old
habits and assumptions that may no longer apply. For more on this,
click here.
-
For an introduction
to the broader concept of "incompleteness,"
click here.
STRUCTURE, METHODOLOGY, MEDIA
-
Media & Communications
(text vs. voice; tools for courses; tools for students; tools for
faculty)
-
Synchronous vs.
Asynchronous
-
Assessment Methodology
related to ... [e.g., courses that appropriately depend on quantitative
assessment, feedback, right/wrong answers vs. courses that depend on
more verbal responses, etc. ]
-
T/L Methodology related
to Content [e.g., lab sciences require more/less...? courses that
require expository writing...?]
CONTENT
-
Abstract vs. Concrete
Courses
-
T/L Methodology related
to Content [e.g., lab sciences require more/less...? courses that
require expository writing...?]
OTHER
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