University of Virginia Library

New Sections

One assistant professor teaching a survey
course in psychology indicated that the size of
the survey courses had not been affected by
increased numbers of students only because of
the adding of new sections in recent years. He
described pure lectures as being too inefficient
and limiting interaction with the students.

One teacher of an upper level math course,
with a size of over 30 students, stated that the
size of the course limited his ability to answer
students' questions and to obtain good
feedback from his students.

One professor of an upper level history
course indicated that his class size had gone
from 40 students five years ago to 140 students
at present. This increased size, he indicated, had
little effect on the content of the course but
hurt the course's effectiveness as he could no
longer require the students to write papers.

A teacher in the department of Germanic
and Slavic Languages stated that the large size
of his course hurt the student who was not
properly motivated or who was doing poorly.

An associate professor of physics hoped for
an increased class size but stated that a problem
was developing in the laboratory sections. He
claimed that the laboratory sections shouldn't
exceed a size of 20 students due to lack of
equipment and space and that the number of
sections couldn't be increased indefinitely.

Finally, a teacher in the economics
department indicated that the quality of the
students rather than the class size concerned
him. He stated that he would prefer to see the
University increase its standards than to grow in
size.