Madeleine O’Neill
News Editor
This semester, two classes of unprecedented size are being taught on campus -— one section of Foundations of Biology holds 55 students and a section of Introduction to Psychology lists 87 students on its roster. These classes, according to Dean for Curriculum and Academic Engagement Henry Kreuzman, are part of a pilot program to determine whether introductory classes can be taught effectively to large groups.
Traditionally, Wooster class sizes fall between 17 and 20 students. U.S. News and World Report lists the College’s current faculty-student ratio at 12:1 even including the two recently added large classes. Although enrollment has been on a steady upward swing for the past several years, Dean Kreuzman claims that the large classes have not been created out of need or financial difficulty. Rather, the classes are an experiment to see whether resources can be better allocated in those departments. “Last fall in the EPC [Educational Policy Committee], we were looking at pressures in the psychology department,” Kreuzman said. “…One idea that emerged was ‘what if we had a large, double or triple size psych section and then compared the learning outcomes there to what we saw in some of the smaller sections?’”
The Educational Policy Committee, which is made up of administrators, faculty and two student representatives, hopes that increasing class sizes at the intro level will make more professors available to teach small, intensive higher-level classes. For the time being, however, the EPC is mostly focused on determining how student learning is affected in large classes. Kreuzman explained that students in the large sections will be assessed at the end of the semester and their content acquisition compared with that of students in traditionally sized intro classes.
Assessment of the large classes may include some sort of quantitative comparison of student learning as well as consideration of student evaluations. Professor Amber Garcia, who is teaching the large Intro to Psychology section, said, “Our plan is to try out the large intro model for this entire academic year and then make a decision as a department, in consultation with the Educational Policy Committee, about how to proceed in future academic years.”
Garcia was an original proponent of the idea of large intro classes in the psychology department. On an EPC visit to Swarthmore College, Garcia spoke with faculty who found large intro classes to be more effective for a number of reasons. “The psychology department is fully staffed, but we do have a large number of majors,” said Garcia. “One of the things I am concerned about is the experience of psychology majors. By deploying our resources differently at the 100-level, we are able to offer an additional 200- or 300-level course and hopefully provide more opportunities for smaller (15 -20 person) seminars.”
Mariah Joyce ’17, who is in the large psychology section, said, “I was surprised when I heard that it would be as big as it is. I think I went in expecting it to be different than my other classes but it’s really not.”
Garcia is optimistic about the potential benefits of large intro classes. She believes that by increasing class sizes, the psychology department will be able to ensure consistency among incoming students who might normally be split into several sections with different professors and perspectives.
The success or failure of the large classes will determine whether they are continued in the future. Kreuzman explained that, even if these classes are found to be successful in maintaining student learning, individual departments may decide not to implement them. “I don’t even know that we’d continue in the current classes,” he said.
For now, Professor Garcia is focusing on keeping her large intro class interactive and efficient: “There are some practical issues that I need to sort out–like how do I hand back 87 assignments? But, otherwise, I think it is going well,” she said.