“Less” Speaks Louder Than “More”

In David Daniels’ article, “College Lectures: Is Anybody Listening?” clearly points out the inadequacy of present education system that “teachers, it is charged, are not doing a good job of teaching, and students are not doing a good job of learning.” In addition, he criticizes drastically on the lecture system, “an arrangement much loved by faculty and administrators but scarcely designed to benefit the students.” Moreover, the author considers smaller classes are more effective than lecture courses. In my point of view, smaller classes indeed are more preferable than lecture courses.

First of all, lecture courses do make students feel sleepy easily during the class, but smaller classes do not. For instance, when I attended the lecture courses of liberal education in my freshman year, I can barely concentrate on the lecture because the two- hour long lecture really exhausted my energy. Furthermore, some instructors even talk nonsense in class and students can hardly catch the main points of the lectures. However, I feel quite interested and enthusiastic when taking smaller classes, such as English listening, English composition, or English speaking for there is no distance between professors and me; therefore, I can hear clearly what they say and make responses.

Second, lecture courses cause more students’ absence than smaller classes. Through my observation, lecture courses usually bore students with invariable teaching pattern. As a result, students become passive to attend the dull lecture courses because they think they are wasting time in class. On the contrary, students turn out to be much active and aggressive when taking smaller classes in which they can involved themselves in discussion with their group members and the professor. The interaction among people in smaller classes makes students have great desire to participate in every class and its activities.

Third, lecture courses create a sense of laziness for not only professors but also students; nevertheless, smaller classes help them to build a sense of responsibility. In my own experience, I had once taken a history class taught by an awful professor. He never called the roll in class and he did not care whether everyone attended the class or not. What’s worse, he just kept reading the textbook by himself and never explained the meaning of the content. After a period of time, only four or five students would attend his class punctually; the rest of the students would only appeared in class during midterm or final examination. On the other hand, because students are required to discuss the specific issue together and take the responsibility for doing the research on their own, they will understand their presence is absolutely important for group members and the professor. Meanwhile, the professor has to figure out the appropriate program and schedule for students to execute their arrangement and help the students evaluate their works. Through this kind of pattern in smaller classes, it benefits both professors and students; moreover, they all acquire what they should learn in class.

To sum up, I really encourage the faculties and administrators in schools to devote themselves to the execution of teaching and learning in smaller classes. Even though it is hard to achieve, just like Daniels says in his article, “ Lectures will never entirely disappear from the university scene,” we still have to try our best to popularize and spread the idea of learning in smaller classes. After all, through this way, both professors and students can get the utmost advantage.