Class Size in College Writing Classes Writing Program Administrators and college administrators frequently come into conflict over the issue of class size in first year composition. Administrators want higher class sizes because even the addition of two or three students per section would substantially ease budget concerns, reduce the number of teachers necessary, open up classes and classrooms, and aid in enrollment management.
For administrators with no experience teaching writing,
first year composition is not significantly different from other
first year classes, in which grading two or three more exams adds a
trivial burden on the teacher.
On the other hand, having taught first year composition, Writing Program
Administrators
are aware that smaller classes simply work better,
students have more opportunity to participate, teachers can meet with students more often and do a better job of engaging in responsive and reflective teaching, and that even a few students can mean additional hours of grading and conferencing.
This is an area where good qualitative or quantitative research would be very helpful; unfortunately, it does not exist. There is no shortage of research on the issue of teaching and class size; the problem is finding something relevant to writing courses.
Advocates of smaller classes cite Glass et al; advocates of larger courses cite Williams et al. Glass, however, while including courses in writing and reading, almost exclusively concerns elementary and secondary.
Williams, while a study of postsecondary education, has no writing courses.
A more fundamental problem with the Williams study--
because it is shared with numerous other studies of class size--
is the measurement mechanism. That is, examinations are not
appropriate measures of student achievement in courses whose
goal is to teach the writing of research papers
(see Huot, 1990, CCCC Committee on Assessment, 1995, White, 1985,
White and Polin, 1986);
hence, any study with conclusions based on examination grades is largely
irrelevant due
to its measurement mechanism. This is not to say that the situation is hopeless. The few studies that involve college writing classes do enable one to draw the following inferences: 1) There is fairly good evidence on what constitutes good practice in the teaching of college writing: thoughtful writing assignments, considerable writing on the part of students, thoughtful feedback from teachers (see especially Astin 1993). This gets harder with the addition of each student. 2) Similarly, George Hillocks long ago showed the importance and superiority of constructivist approaches to the teaching of writing (Research in Writing Composition, Teaching Writing as Reflective Practice, and more recently Ways of Thinking, Ways of Teaching). This means an approach which does not set the task of teaching writing as getting students to memorize and understand certain objects of knowledge (the objectivist approach), but as setting students tasks during which they will learn and giving them appropriate feedback along the way. The more that one engages in constructivist teaching, the more important is class size; the more that the goals and practices of a program are objectivist, the less class size matters. 3) Smaller class sizes enable good teaching, but they do not cause it. Larger class sizes preclude good teaching practices in that teachers are forced into objectivist teaching practices (unless one gets into a blazingly unethical working situation), but reducing class sizes will not automatically make objectivist teachers into constructivist ones. 4) The more that a program emphasizes revision, what Hillocks calls the "environmental mode" of teaching (1980), multiple drafts, and teacher accessibility, the more that having a small class matters. In my experience, the best way to explain to outside administrators why first year composition classes must be small is to run through the work involved in teaching them. It's often necessary to explain that grading a paper takes longer than grading an exam, that commenting on a paper that will be revised takes much longer than simply grading a paper, and that individual conferencing is absolutely necessary. Then, simply running through the numbers can be very persuasive: showing how much time teachers are expected to spend preparing class, grading papers, meeting with students, attending meetings, teaching class, and so on. Below is a brief and randomly annotated bibliography regarding research on the effect of class size on college writing classes. It was compiled with major assistance from Sheril Hook and Dana Kinnison. Astin, A.W. (1985). Achieving Educational Excellence . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ____. (1993). What Matters in College? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. This is probably one of the best sources to cite when working with administrators on the issue of class size. Chatman, Steve. Lower Division Class Size at U.S. Postsecondary Institutions. AIR 1996 Annual Forum Paper. Chickering, A. W. And Gamson, Z.F. (1987). Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Educaion. AAHE Bulletin, 39 (7), 3-7. Glass, Gene V; Smith, Mary Lee. Meta-Analysis of Research on the Relationship of Class-Size and Achievement. The Class Size and Instruction Project. This is, I infer, the study that has had such impressive impact on reducing class size in elementary and secondary education. Goettler-Sopko, Sheree. The Effect of Class Size on Reading Achievement. (1990) "Reading achievement does not necessarily improve with the reduction of student/teacher ratio unless appropriate learning styles and effective teaching styles are utilized" (from abstract). Hess, Fritz. Class Size Revisited: Glass and Smith in Perspective. (1979) Critical of methodology of Glass and Smith report. Knight, William E. The Effect of Class Size in English 10000: "Introduction to College English" on Student grades in English 10001: "College English I" in the Kent State University Regional Campuses. (1991) One of few studies specifically on College Writing Course (Basic Writing Course). Shows that students who took the course the semester there were smaller classes got much better grades the next semester. Light, R.J. The Harvard Assessment Seminars: Explorations with Students and Faculty about Teaching, Learning, and the Student Life. Second Report. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Graduate School of Education and Kennedy School of Government. McKeachie, W.J. (1980). Class Size, Large Classes, and Multiple Sections. Academe, 66, 24-27. Provides "Evidence of the effectiveness of smaller classes in developing higher-order abilities- particularly in communications and critical thinking" (National Center for Educational Statistics, 16). McKeachie, W.J., Pintrich, P.R., Lin, Y.G, and Smith, D. (1986). Teaching and Learning in the College Classroom: A Review of the Research Literature. Ann Arbor, MI: National Center for Research to Improve Teaching and Learning (NCRIPTAL), University of Michigan. "Documents empirical linkage between particular elements of instructional delivery and improvements in learning" (National Center for Educational Statistics, 25) McLeaish, J. (1968). The Lecture Method. Cambridge Monographs on Teaching Methods #1. Cambridge, England: Cambridge Institute of Education. National Center for Educational Statistics. A Preliminary Study of the Feasibility and Utility for National Policy of Instructional "GoodmPractice" Indicators in Undergraduate Education. Contractor Report. Boulder, CO: National Center for Education Management Decisions, 1994. Pascarella, E.T. And Terenzini, P.T. (1991). How College Affects Students: Findings and Insights from Twenty Years of Research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. "Documents empirical linkage between particular elements of instructional delivery and improvements in learning" (National Center for Educational Statistics, 25) Schalock, H.D. (1976). Structuring Processes to Improve Student Outcomes. In O.T. Leanning (Ed.), Improving Educational Outcomes. (New Directions for Higher Education, No 16, pp. 25-54). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Provides "Evidence of the effectiveness of smaller classes in developing higher-order abilities- particularly in communications and critical thinking" (National Center for Educational Statistics, 16). Thoren, Daniel. Reducing Class Size at the Community College. (1987) Williams, D., Cook, P., Quinn, B., and Jensen, R. (1985). University Class Size: Is Smaller Better? Research in Higher Education, 23 (3), 307-318.