Effective Teaching in an Overcrowded Class! Would it be possible?  High school as a Case Study  

                                                                        

Outline:1-What is a large / crowded class?

2-Do we have large classes in our high schools.

3-Undesirable Effects of Overcrowdedness

4-Solutions and Recommandations

The argumentThe main contention defended in this paper is that conditions under which my colleagues and I teach English are unfavourable.Therefore, implementation of any teaching strategy would lack objectivity and credibility.

1-What is a large / crowded class?

class management, student discipline, classroom equipments, facilities, staffing...etc

“We do not have a rigid interpretation of how many students make a class large. What is being taught and what resources, accommodation and facilities are available all have to be taken into account” Alan Jenkins and Graham Gibbs. Teaching Large Classes in Higher Education: How to Maintain quality with Reduced Resources, 2013, p.16)

A large class is /means- too many students in a very small sized class-too many students to learn their names by the

end of the semester - antithesis to ‘normal’, ‘small’ and ‘regular’

class. “in such crowded classes, the teacher cannot pay

individual attention to the learners. In such situations, the teacher cannot do full justice to his duty and work.” M.E.S Elizabeth (Methods of Teaching English, 2004,p.41)

          

 2-Do we have large classes in our high schools?-Students in the majority of the classes I

teach exceed 40 students. -The number attains 56 in some classes“I would not consider crowded a classroom

which consists of 60 students in a high school”. Elhbib Elmalki

-I teach 225 students , different levels (common core and 2nd baccalaureate students) the largest class contains 47 students.

3-Undesirable effects of  overcrowdedness 

The first self-evident effect is noise “a large class is a noisy class” to use Julia

Thompson’s termsnoise in large classes has an adverse

effect on the orderly productive classroom teachers and students want to have

Students lose concentration and fail to understand their lessons.

cheating

-Testing large classes is time-consumingIn a large class, the teacher cannot easily

recognize the names and faces of his/ her students

Not all the learners have the opportunity to speak and have immediate feedback from their teacher since one hour is not pedagogically enough to cover 52 students in a class

-In-class chaos

Teacher-student confrontation

4-Solutions and recommandations

-Unclog our schools:

1-the immediate creation of other institutions in cities and forsaken areas of Morocco.

2-more and more teachers should be recruited in parallel

- Teacher would consider it a luxury to have a maximum of 20 or 25 students in a class.

“the smaller classes are the preferred option for our students [because] a positive discipline climate and a pleasant learning environment are impossible in overcrowded classes.” Julia Thompson . Discipline Survival Guide for the Secondary Teacher,2011.p77

Classroom managment 

To conclude There is of course a substantial relationship

between the size of the class and the quality of education

teaching overcrowded classes is possible but teaching them effectively and pedagogically covering crowd of students in very determined amount of time (one hour session for each class) taking into account their racial, ethnic, and educational background is, to put it moderately, a nightmare and quite foolhardy.

References -Elizabeth M.E.S. Methods of Teaching English. Discovery

publishing house, 2004.-Heppner, Frank. Teaching the large College Class: a Guide Book

for Instructors with Multitudes. Market Street, San Francisco, 2007.

-Ministre de L’éducation National, 2000, Recommandations pédagogiques et programmes de l’Anglais dans l’enseignement Secondaire.

-Thompson G. Julia. Discipline Survival Guide for the Secondary Teacher. Market Street, San Francisco, 2011.

-Gibbs Graham and Jenkins Alan. (ed). Teaching Large Classes in Higher Education: How to Maintain quality with Reduced Resources. Routledge, 2013.

     

Thank you