female student in large lecture hall

Effectively Teaching Large Classes

At A Glance

  • Large classes bring diverse student backgrounds and expectations, requiring careful planning and coordination with Teaching Fellows.
  • Instructors often rely on broad lectures, but research shows that blending lectures with active learning or flipped elements improves student performance.
  • Strategies like think-pair-share and clicker questions help engage students and support deeper understanding.
  • Midterm feedback and formative assessments can reveal class-wide issues and individual challenges.
  • The most effective large-class approaches create opportunities for small-group engagement and critical thinking among peers.

Examples

Recommendations

Additional Resources

References

Examples

Instructors across disciplines have written about their successful strategies for engaging large class sizes:

  • A general chemistry class with over 200 students uses a peer-led team learning (PLTL) approach to execute active-learning activities during class time. The PLTL approach invites back students who have successfully completed the course. These students have been trained in pedagogical knowledge regarding cooperative learning and return to work with students currently enrolled in the course. A report includes details about the creation of videos for flipped instruction, class structure, and the recruitment and training of peer leaders, as well as the benefits of the PLTL model (Robert, et. al, 2016).
  • A history instructor does not want to provide his PowerPoint presentation to students because he worries that students will skip class. Instead, he posts a skeletal version of the PowerPoint introducing the content. Students must fill in the details by attending lectures. A report expands on the benefits of this strategy for  “cue[ing]-up prior knowledge” in lecture (Hodges, 2016).
  • A biology instructor flips her course to prioritize cooperative problem solving during class time, including frequent in-class assessment of understanding. A report shows how well-organized group activities in a biology class confer an advantage to less prepared student populations and can result in increased learning gains (Knight, et. al, 2005).

Recommendations

These and other strategies can be found in Carbone (1998) and Stanley, et. al (2002).

Because class discussion can be less controlled, instructors should have clear expectations for themselves and for students about topics to cover. Instructors might develop several key big-picture questions to ask at the beginning of class and have groups answer by the end of class. Part of a solid discussion structure also includes explicit details defining participation and grading.

Instructors should feel free to insert themselves into conversation in order to keep conversation on track. Students especially appreciate this tactic when a few students tend to monopolize conversation. After ensuring that groups are functioning well, instructors can invite especially talkative students to continue conversation after class or in office hours.

Instructors should be aware when students of particular gender, races, classes, or abilities are systematically marginalized in class. Instructors can refer to our equity-minded teaching framework for strategies to ensure that all students are able to participate. To this end, instructors can set ground rules for discussion in the syllabus or invite students to help formulate class rules.

Instructors can consider strategies for ensuring that students have time to formulate answers and that quieter students have alternative opportunities to enter discussion. In class, instructors can allocate a few minutes for students to think about their answers to a question and then have them discuss with a partner (see think-pair-share above). Additionally, instructors can email out a worksheet with key ideas, which students should be prepared to define or explain in class, or a list of conceptual terms and ideas for students to chew on before and after class.

The behavior of an instructor plays a huge role in the tone of a class. Instructors should regularly show appreciation for student comments, substantively responding to them by fleshing out good ideas and pushing back on flawed arguments. Additionally, instructors can encourage students to build on each other’s ideas. 

While discussion is a form of active learning, instructors can consider other activities and tools like note cards and surveys, role playing and performance, or debate that engage all students in their given groups. 

Additional Resources

Teaching Metacognition - Brown Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning

Ten Metacognitive Teaching Strategies- Vancouver Island Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning

“Metacognition and Student Learning,” James Lang, Chronicle of Higher Education 17 January 2012

References

Carbone, EL. (1998). Teaching Large Classes: Tools and Strategies. Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage Publications.

Cooper, JL, Robinson P.  (2000). The Argument for Making Large Classes Seem Small. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 81: 5-16.

Freeman S, et al. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. PNAS 111(23): 8410-8415.

Hodges, L. (2016). Three Common Demands from Students in Large Classes and What to Do About Them. The National Teaching and Learning Forum 25.5: 1-4.

Knight JK, Wood WB. (2005). Teaching More by Lecturing Less. Chudler E, ed. Cell Biology Education. 4(4):298-310. doi:10.1187/05-06-0082.

Mayer RE, Stull A, DeLeeuw K, et al. (2008). Clickers in college classrooms: Fostering learning with questioning methods in large lecture classes. Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA.  

Robert J, Lewis SE, Oueini R, and Mapugay A. (2016). Coordinated Implementation and Evaluation of Flipped Classes and Peer-Led Team Learning in General Chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education. 93(12): 1993-1998. doi: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00395

Smith M, Wood WB, Adams WK, et al. (2009). Why Peer Discussion Improves Student Performance on In-Class Concept Questions. Science. 323(5910): 122-124. doi: 10.1126/science.1165919

Stanley CA, Porter ME. (2002). Engaging Large Classes: Strategies and Techniques for College Faculty.  Boston: Anker Publishing Company, Inc.

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