Our Voice
Like it or not, bigger classes are coming to GCSU next fall. Three classes will have enrollments of 130-160 students. While we realize that not every class can have the 17 to 1 student to faculty ratio that is supposed to be our average, class sizes in the triple digits are excessive. Learning in such large classes can be challenging and with so many students, it is easy to feel disconnected. And feeling disconnected creates the opposite learning environment that GCSU strives for.
In a class of over 100 people, the close relationship between faculty and students would be lacking. Absent students go unnoticed and having class in a crowded auditorium makes it difficult for students to pay attention.
Inattentive students are not engaged in the learning process, which is something that the university has been striving for. A move like this is a step backward from initiatives meant to engage students, such as service learning and critical thinking. With a class this size, it is difficult, if not impossible, to do much more than lecture and a few tests based on the lectures. Few teachers will want to sit down and grade so many papers and essay questions.
Some students choose GCSU because it is smaller than schools like The University of Georgia, where classes can be as large as 300 students. Some of these students see a class with 50 or 60 people as a big class. Even in a class with 50 or 60 people, a teacher can seem unapproachable. Imagine what a class in a packed Arts & Sciences Auditorium will feel like.
Classes of this size also strain the resources that professors can offer. They can only give so many office hours to their students and right before a big test many students may need help. Everyone may not be able to get the help they need.
We at The Colonnade feel that these large classes go against the liberal arts atmosphere. Such crowded classes do not encourage discussion and they do not engage students in learning. It is difficult to get the same education in a large class that you would get in a smaller class.
Please send responses to
ColonnadeLetters@gcsu.edu.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Apr 9 2010. Filed under Our Voice.
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