Effect of reducing class size
If someone asks me that which class I like best, I will say ELI classes without any doubt. Not only because of the excellent and patient instructors and kind, smart classmates, also because of the small class size. In my class, there are nearly twenty students. It is a relatively small class. We benefit a lot from the small class size.
First because the number of students is relatively small, instructors can pay more attention to their students and increase their students’ study effectiveness. As a consequence, students are paid close attention to. We can get specific and detailed feedback from our instructors, which is helpful for us to make progress. Instructors know each one of us well so that they can point out the key problem that we have directly and immediately. In my math class, there are over one hundred students, so that our professor has never taken a look at our homework. She just gave us the correct answers or just let us do homework online, which is corrected automatically. I believe that our teacher would like to correct our homework and give us detailed feedback, but she is less than possible to do it because of the large class size. The negative impact that the large class size has on our study is obvious. Therefore, I love ELI classes. All of ELI classes are small class. Comparing ELI to my math class, I have more chance to ask questions that I don’t understand in class, although they are the questions that are so simple to other students, it won’t waste too much time for the instructor to answer it one more time. Let’s imagine one hundred students raise one question each, we will have no time to go on with the text book but to answer the questions. On the other hand, since the instructors know each of their students, they will be able to develop a more effective way of teaching just for their students. An effective way of teaching leads to a high-achieving class. Thus, we usually understand materials quickly and have chance to learn lot of extra knowledge.
Because there are few students, it’s easy to get familiar with each other and make friends are the second effect. During our college life, making friends in class is less likely, let alone studying in a big class. But in small classes, we have chances to discuss and get acquaintance with classmate. For example, I have a two-hour business class without break, in which there are at least fifty students, which adds difficulty to discussions and acquaintance with each other. I only know a few people sit around me even one third semester has passed. However, it’s a totally different story of my ELI classes. We exchange ideas in group discussions; we share thoughts in presentations; we tell jokes and fun experiences during the breaks. Therefore, it doesn’t take a long time for us becoming good friends.
The impact that a class size has on a student is undeniable. A relatively small class size helps each student gain individual attention and easy access to friendship. What if all the classes are small classes! Though impossible to carry it out, it can be an ideal goal for college education style.