Teaching the Large College Class – A Guidebook for Instructors with Multitudes: JB - Anker

Teaching large classes is a fact of life for professors at many institutions. In addition to pedagogy, instructors of these courses must also be concerned with legal, ethical, financial, technological, personnel, and management issues. Virtually all introductory courses are large ones, as are the popular intermediate courses at large institutions. Typically, little or no training or instruction is provided to new professors about how to manage large classes successfully. This book is a valuable resource for any college teacher, adjunct or full-time, facing a large class. It will also be useful for college administrators who might want to issue it to teachers, especially adjuncts, assigned to large classes for the first time. A distillation of years of experience by the author--who started his college teaching career in 1969--in teaching large classes and in coaching other professors to do the same, this guide is concise and user-friendly. It employs teaching-as-acting as a common theme, with many practical examples covering all of the major aspects of organizing, managing, and teaching a large lecture course in any field.

Along with four appendixes featuring a first-day checklist and samples of a course outline, syllabus, and first-day lecture, this book includes information on:

• Thinking ahead

• Getting ready for the first day

• The teacher as actor

• Managing assistants and graders

• Using media effectively

• Auditorium classroom activities

• Assessment and testing

• Grading

• The seasons of a class