I enjoy teaching small groups, but there are times when I think wistfully of the benefits of lecturing to several hundred students at a time. A colleague once moved institutions and found himself delivering lectures to vast roomfuls of students who didn’t ask questions, or interrupt: “It’s great”, he said “I talk and they listen. I got through a week’s worth of notes in 2 hours”.
I don’t think it would be for me. The stage fright would kill me (I always volunteered very quickly for ‘costumes’ when it was school play time). However, it does occur to me that this style of delivery has some advantages, not least the ability to avoid the ghastly realisation that you just aren’t getting the point across. These are what I refer to as my ‘Father Ted’ moments. I’m thinking of the episode with the holiday in the caravan where Ted attempts to explain to Father Dougal the difference between toy cows and distant cows in the field outside (if you’re not familiar with it, just check out You Tube!)
I do know that I’m not alone in this feeling, lots of colleagues have admitted to the same sinking feeling when, try as you may, you just can’t seem to explain something in terms that the students understand. Nonetheless, I do find it disconcerting. I can’t help but think that I ought to be managing to make it easier than it seems, so I’m always on the look out for new ideas. Quiz games work well, Google earth is fun for Land law and chocolate is usually quite a good motivating factor. I can’t say that I’ve tried plastic cows yet, but the more I think of it the more I can see the potential – there’s the cow in Couchman v Hill or indeed the horse in Felthouse v Bindley if we’re doing Contract law and there are plenty of estoppel cases about farms… Who knows? Perhaps Ted was pioneering exciting new visual and kinaesthetic learning styles?
I enjoy teaching small groups, but there are times when I think wistfully of the benefits of lecturing to several hundred students at a time. A colleague once moved institutions and found himself delivering lectures to vast roomfuls of students who didn’t ask questions, or interrupt: “It’s great”, he said “I talk and they listen. I got through a week’s worth of notes in 2 hours”.
During my days at uni I was a student in a class with 320 students, and it is very true that there was no room for questions, imagine each one of us asking one question, it would have been impossible for our lecturer to answer them all.
The atmosphere in a big class is much different from a small one, the place goes from very noisy when they all walk in to very quite during the lecture to very nosy again when they leave, but non the less is a fun environment to be in.