There’s an ongoing debate on whether class size should be limited or not. In this article, my aim is to focus on the advantages and disadvantages of limiting a class size and try and get an answer to the question.
Firstly, we need to understand whether class size actually matters as the professor is delivering his material and the student is trying to understand it. So how many students are sitting around a particular student really matter? I personally believe that it does. A higher number of students means a higher probability of somebody’s cell phone ringing in the middle of the lecture, somebody fidgeting and few people chatting amongst themselves. Benefits also include a greater number of questions asked in the class, peer pressure and competition, and maybe an indication that the course or subject is in demand. Let us analyze the two situations in detail.
Consider a class having high strength. By high strength, I mean one professor and maybe a hundred or more students. It’s obvious that it will be very difficult for the faculty to give individual attention to students. So, in many cases, even after the completion of a course, the faculty may not know a particular student. A shy student may refrain from asking questions. The last row benches eventually turn out to be noisiest. On the other hand, such a strength means a requirement of a larger classroom and better infrastructure. The faculty might as well need a microphone and a few speakers in the classroom. One point which needs to be addressed is that despite all of this, a student may well learn all the concepts and not really be affected by the size of the class.
Now consider a class having low strength. Low strength means one faculty and maybe around 30 students at the most. The faculty can give individual attention to students. The class has to remain quiet as any significant movement, noise etc. won’t go unnoticed. There’s a great chance that the class will be interactive. The last bench will not be significant as such as it’ll be well within the sight of the faculty. Again, we need to address that even in such comfortable conditions, a student may end up not paying attention. In my experience, classes with low strengths have been more impactful.
I’m sure that larger classes also can be impactful and interesting, but it’s just that my experience supports low strength classes. Larger classes mean a crowd and also lesser number of teachers. If there’s too high a demand for a particular course, we can always have two or three classes with a good student to faculty ratio. I personally believe class strength plays a major role in a student’s life and it should be small enough to include all the advantages discussed and not so large as to exclude all the disadvantages discussed.
