Lou Manz asked: "... is there some "magic number" for class size where you feel it becomes virtually impossible, from a workload view, to assign papers that need to be critically evaluated? And what about exams--is there a point where short/long essay questions become too much to deal with?" FWIW, Lou, West Chester's Psych Dept. has dealt with the problem by going to large (100 student) sections of intro psych (except in the "majors only" sections). The rationale is that a)once you're over about 30-35 students your pretty much talking about multiple choice and lecture format anyway; b)we can still keep our upper level classes small; c)we can avoid putting people who are expert in small group/collaborative teaching methods into large classes and we avoid putting good lecturers (like me) into small, interactive classes that magnify their inability to direct small, interactive classes. In other words, it allows us to play to faculty members' strngths. A bonus is that the admin. loves the large numbers of FTE students we cn generate and has repaid us with release time for research. Actually, I wrote a paper on this a few years ago. Let me know off list if you're interested in seeing a copy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office (610)436-2945 Professor Home (610)363-1939 Department of Psychology FAX (610)436-2846 West Chester University [EMAIL PROTECTED] West Chester, PA 19383 www.wcupa.ed ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Husband, father, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass fiddler........... not necessarily in order of importance. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
