Smaller Class, Better Learning Environment

“I can’t agree with him more,” is the reflection I had after reading David Daniels’ “Is Anybody Listening?” Because of the limited resource and requirement made by ministry of education that student ought to learn some general knowledge, university and college can’t help but start a course which contains hundreds of students but teach by only one teacher. Some people claim that the big class is economical and it can train students how to get the key points in the speech by themselves. However, it sometimes disencourages student from studying due to their inability to understand what the speaker says. Therefore, I strongly promote the small class system because the difference in talent, free discussion, and interaction between teachers and students.

Everyone has different talents, so the small class system allows teachers to take different care on each student. However, in the big class, teachers don’t have the capacity to take care of every student. If they spend that time on every student, the course can’t proceed at all. Within the small class, teachers know whether one student understand the content or not. Teachers can also adjust the pace of teaching according to students’ comprehension to the course. By doing so, not only can students learn effectively but enable teachers to know how to prepare for the course. I took the calculus in my college year. The teacher’s teaching style was okay to me, but one of my friends had hard time understanding what the teacher taught. In order to understand the content completely, she always had to stay after class to ask questions. Facing such a big class, the instructor couldn’t sacrifice the interest of the majority to help the minority. Therefore, the instructor asked her to attend the calculus in the night school because it is a smaller class. Then, teacher can spend more time on each student and help them understand the content completely.

Free discussion helps students to learn from each other. Students can learn not only from their teacher but also classmates. Unlike students in the U.S., students in the Asia country are not that active about raising questions in class because some people feel uneasy to speak in front of a big crowd. On the other hand, in a small class, teacher will be able to allow us some time to discuss the things just taught. Students will be able to talk freely about their opinion and question. Also, by discussing, students can know the other aspect of the same subject. I take the introduction to literature this year, and the teacher allows some time for us to discuss in class. Literature is quite subjective. People’s understandings about the same piece are different, so diverse responses are given. Through the discussion, I know some interesting comment of the story from my classmates and I suddenly realize that literature can be so creative and fantastic.

Interaction within student and teacher is reciprocal because it allow teacher to learn something new from students’ opinion. Teaching the same subject for years may be dull, but one of my teachers claims that after he reads the story again and discuss with students, he will get another new perspective. I took his introduction to novel class which contains only about fifteen people two years ago. Together with other classmates, we talked freely about our reflection and even related the topic in the novel with the latest news or PC game. At that time, we urged him to play a game that contains the same historical background as the novel we were reading. Through playing, we learned the exact situation of the society at that time. Then, we can analyze the context better than before. After we finished the novel, the instructor claimed that it was we that allowed him to know that playing could be learning.

The lecture system will not disappear from the university completely. However, if with enough resource and money, I strongly recommend schools to apply the small class system. It enables teachers to pay more attention on students needed special care. Moreover, discussion between students allows them to learn from each other. The better the learning environment is, the more active students become when study.