Class Sizes and Spaces

Large classes offer instructors a particular set of challenges for teaching. There is a wide variety of spaces you could find yourself teaching in at McMaster. There are smaller seminar rooms to large lecture halls. You may even find yourself in one of the active learning classrooms on campus.

Active learning classrooms at McMaster are classrooms equipped with moveable tables and/or chairs and strategically-located technology (screens, video connectors, microphones, etc.) around the room to help better engage students. McMaster has a number of active learning classrooms in the L.R. Wilson Building and the Peter George Centre for Living and Learning. Active learning classrooms differ from traditional classrooms in that they encourage sustained collaboration among students and shift the focus from the instructor. Accordingly, active learning classrooms require instructors to plan their courses with different considerations in mind, such as how to reduce the amount of lecture time and how to organize lessons around group participation and assessment.

Lecture halls work well for delivering content using didactic methods. As a result, attention and motivation can decline quickly. It is recommended that instructors utilize active learning techniques periodically to increase engagement. While some active learning strategies work for smaller groups or can be very time and resources intensive, there are many strategies that can be employed in larger classroom settings. A simple Think, Pair, Share, for example, can be used frequently to get students talking with each other and generating new ideas about what they are learning in class. Think-pair-share is a classic exercise that involves presenting students with a question or problem, giving them a moment to think on their own, having them pair up with another person, and then having them discuss their thoughts. A variation of this involves asking pairs to share what they discussed with the larger class. This technique is particularly useful for generating participation when individuals do not necessarily know each other well, but it can be applied in many different circumstances. Using a variety of delivery methods, such as in-class video clips, readings, and active problem solving go a long way to keep students’ minds on task and engaged with your material.