Using Students' Familiarity and Knowledge to Enliven Large Sociology Classes

Abstract

cided that they can provide education on the cheap in sociology and other social science departments by stuffing more students into our classrooms without any increase in budgeting for faculty (for discussions of mass classes by faculty members representing various social sciences, see Benjamin 1991; Jenkins 1991; McGee 1986; Schwartz 1991). It is unclear whether large classes (defined by Benjamin 1991 as consisting of 100 or more students) are inferior to smaller ones in terms of learning achievement. Colleagues around the country and in my department, however, often lament the difficulty of getting to know students' backgrounds, encouraging participation (Smith 1992), and holding meaningful discussions; the depersonalized nature of teaching (Adler 1993; Benjamin 1991); and passive learning patterns (Hamlin and Janssen 1987) in mass classes. Sociologists thus find themselves in an ironic position. We deal with subject matter that is inherently interesting and relevant to students; yet we may be robbed of the ability to communicate this because many of our classes are so large. We know that class participation and discussion are beneficial in all sociology courses, but often we are unsure how to deliver this benefit in mass classes, where students appear to be apathetic and unmotivated. As a solution, Smith (1992) suggests (although this activity may be unpopular) that students in large classes make brief notes of their participation in each class, turn them in at the end of a session, and thus gain credit for participation. Day (1994) recommends that we should focus on requiring attendance, and to a lesser extent, on keeping sociological writing journals (see McKeachie 1986 for other techniques). A peculiar set of circumstances in one of my recent mass classes has led me to focus on students themselves as sources of knowledge to illustrate concepts and to enliven class discussions. On the basis of this experience, I believe the exercise described here will personalize substantive concepts in a way which is relevant to students and which will involve them in class discussion. This exercise is an addition to other tech-