140 students class sizes-education factories?

[patslatt]

According to a lecturer in literature in a regional university in Ireland,her first year class size is around 140 students. This provides an inferior educational experience for students compared to American universities where she studied. While PhD students provide additional educational support as in universities in America,because the time it takes to complete a PhD is far less in Ireland than in America, far fewer PhD students are available in Irish universities relative to the number of students.

In the best American universities,students receive guidance on writing essays,term papers and reports and their essays are criticised in detailed critical notes. This raises students' writing skills to a high level.

Some people familiar with the British system believe that this American guidance is too prescriptive and interferes with students' independent studies. There may be some truth to that criticism in the case of British students whose highly specialised A levels may be equivalent to a year of university.

How many Irish Leaving Cert graduates are ready to be thrown in at the deep end in a lecture hall of 140 students affording little contact with the lecturer and assistant lecturers? Is this factory education worthy of the name university?

<Mod> Moved to Education </Mod>

[TheJudge]

According to a lecturer in literature in a regional university in Ireland,her first year class size is around 140 students. This provides an inferior educational experience for students compared to American universities where she studied. While PhD students provide additional educational support as in universities in America,because the time it takes to complete a PhD is far less in Ireland than in America, far fewer PhD students are available in Irish universities relative to the number of students.

In the best American universities,students receive guidance on writing essays,term papers and reports and their essays are criticised in detailed critical notes. This raises students' writing skills to a high level.

Some people familiar with the British system believe that this American guidance is too prescriptive and interferes with students' independent studies. There may be some truth to that criticism in the case of British students whose highly specialised A levels may be equivalent to a year of university.

How many Irish Leaving Cert graduates are ready to be thrown in at the deep end in a lecture hall of 140 students affording little contact with the lecturer and assistant lecturers? Is this factory education worthy of the name university?

I see no problem with large lectures to be honest and there is tutorials/labs with all courses as far as I know which are conducted in much smaller groups (10-20). You can also email the lecturer and ask them questions if you need to or ask during class,etc.
Obviously a better lecturer-student ratio is desirable but I don't think it has a major impact on the ability of our students.

[Victor Meldrew]

How many Irish Leaving Cert graduates are ready to be thrown in at the deep end in a lecture hall of 140 students affording little contact with the lecturer and assistant lecturers? Is this factory education worthy of the name university?

140 is actually quite small for 1st year. Try any 1st year Science lectures in UCD and you'd be delighted with a little class of 140. Hop across to "orts" and stick you're head in the 1st year economics lectures and it's bigger again....

[seabhcan]

My experience is that the quality of the lecturer is vastly more important than the number of people in the room.

Lecturing is different from second level education. There is virtually no interaction with the students and so the number of people listening shouldn't matter.

[Victor Meldrew]

My experience is that the quality of the lecturer is vastly more important than the number of people in the room.

Lecturing is different from second level education. There is virtually no interaction with the students and so the number of people listening shouldn't matter.

Agreed....

In 1st year maths we had an awful lecturer who did not care if the class was following or not. lecture started, we wrote, lecture stopped, we stopped writing. rinse and repeat.... I ended up getting a PHD student to give me grinds.... you basically had to do maths in 1st year, so the class were not interested either. willing/receptive students and a committed lecturer will feed off each other's enthusiasm. the reverse , and a lot of people get lost... look at the drop out rate after 1st year.

[Dublinguy]

The problem isn't the size of the lecture hall - the problem is that the students are so used to being spoon fed in secondary education that the majority don't have the capacity to work properly unless this continues

[Anonymouse]

I agree with seabhcan on this. Having been in classes of approx. 130 down to six, I can say that in my experience it depends entirely on the quality of the lecturer.
The process of attending a lecture is normally passive, so it makes no difference whether there are 5 or 500 students in the class.

[red365]

Many American classes are as big if not bigger. Don't know see a problem.

[stringjack]

According to a lecturer in literature in a regional university in Ireland,her first year class size is around 140 students. This provides an inferior educational experience for students compared to American universities where she studied. While PhD students provide additional educational support as in universities in America,because the time it takes to complete a PhD is far less in Ireland than in America, far fewer PhD students are available in Irish universities relative to the number of students.

In the best American universities,students receive guidance on writing essays,term papers and reports and their essays are criticised in detailed critical notes. This raises students' writing skills to a high level.

What red365 said.

Also, one of the things the best American universities do worst is teaching undergraduates how to write.

[gosimeon]

According to a lecturer in literature in a regional university in Ireland,her first year class size is around 140 students. This provides an inferior educational experience for students compared to American universities where she studied. While PhD students provide additional educational support as in universities in America,because the time it takes to complete a PhD is far less in Ireland than in America, far fewer PhD students are available in Irish universities relative to the number of students.

In the best American universities,students receive guidance on writing essays,term papers and reports and their essays are criticised in detailed critical notes. This raises students' writing skills to a high level.

Some people familiar with the British system believe that this American guidance is too prescriptive and interferes with students' independent studies. There may be some truth to that criticism in the case of British students whose highly specialised A levels may be equivalent to a year of university.

How many Irish Leaving Cert graduates are ready to be thrown in at the deep end in a lecture hall of 140 students affording little contact with the lecturer and assistant lecturers? Is this factory education worthy of the name university?

<Mod> Moved to Education </Mod>

This is par of the course in Universities around the world. A few of my mates go to NUIG, TCD, and NUIM and their lecture sizes vary from 50 to 150.

Personally I go to IT Carlow. 43 in my course. Any course in Arts or General Science is generally large.