How to Increase the College Student Participation in a Large Classroom

    It is a common problem at both domestic and abroad that many students regard college as an end, and this kind of end means an assured job, which causes the absence of their classes, especially the optional courses in a large classroom. Because of the limited conditions of classrooms and professors in college, these optional courses must be taken in large classrooms, which is hard to meet the standard of student participation. In addition, neither students nor professors pay full-bore attention to class because they save their energy for something else. The students throw their heart and soul into all kinds of parties, friends, clubs, and the first job after graduate, except studying, while the professors pay more attention to their promotion and their scholarly publications. Therefore, the lack of participation is inevitable for students. The student participation is very important and has many benefits, according to the article “Student Participation in the College Classroom: An Extended Multidisciplinary Literature Review” written by Kelly A. Rocca, who is at St. John’s University, and can be contacted at roccak@stjohns.edu,

The more they participate, the less memorization they do, and the more they engage in higher levels of thinking, including interpretation, analysis, and synthesis (Smith, 1977). Students who participate also show improvement in their communication skills (Berdine, 1986; Dancer & Kamvounias, 2005), group interactions (Armstrong and Boud, 1983), and functioning in a democratic society (Girgin & Stevens, 2005). Fassinger (1995a) noted that both.

To solve such a knotty problem that occurs in almost all the universities, the professors should suggest the administrators to build more small classrooms and come up with several topics and questions concerning the course for students to discuss and answer, but the best solution is that trying to make students fully understand what you are saying.

One possible solution to increase student participation is for professors to suggesting the administrators build more small classrooms, and invite more professors for more small classes. Because a professor cannot pay attention to both lecturing courses, discipline controlling, and communication with students in such a large classroom, it would be better if the administrators can take classes into small classes. Firstly, the students can hear clearly in small classes while the sounds are obscure in a large classroom. Secondly, it would be an almost impossibility for those who want to escape from classes or those who want to be absent, because it is easier for professors to call the roll. Thirdly, more communications between professors and students might be available and the courses would be taken effectively. However, there are many difficulties to achieve this goal. One reason for the negation is that such a scheme would cost a lot. More small classrooms means more professors should be employed, which states that the cost of this plan contains the money of  both building the classrooms and employing professors, and it must be so unaffordable for a university like Xi’an International Studies University (XISU), so the administrators will disagree with such a suggestion. Another reason for the seldom possibility is that this plan may take a long time, at least several months or even over one year. For the sake of the lecturing and the well running of school, it is really not so economic to add more small classes while the large classrooms can be used still, though lack of effectiveness. Then this plan is not so practical to solve this problem.

Another possible solution to increase student participation is that professors can divide large classroom into groups and come up several topics and questions concerning courses for students to discuss and answer, which can inspire the students to participate classes and to be more active. According to the article “Student Participation in the College Classroom: An Extended Multidisciplinary Literature Review” also written by Kelly A. Rocca,

    To combat the issue of large class size, Sprecher and Pocs (1987) suggested that students meet for smaller weekly discussion sessions with former students who had performed well in the course, and they reported that this worked well in the classroom during a trial period. Dividing the large class into smaller groups also can be helpful to facilitate discussion (Ferguson, 1986) and to enhance group activities (Cohen, 1991).

It suggests that the small group activities are likely to be more effective, which increases the student participation up to a point. However, in such a large classroom which contains at least 150 students, if the discussion begins how loudly it will be? Are you sure the whole students will discuss the specified questions obediently as you wish? And whether the course process can move smoothly or not? I think the answer should be “No”. Firstly, it will be extraordinarily noisy when the discussion gets started, because everyone may want to prove their correctness by raising the voices, or you can imagine such a situation when more than 150 students whisper or speak loudly in a classroom. It must be a terrible mess, which will impact the neighbor class as well. Secondly, not every student is talking about the concerning topic, maybe half of the students are chatting or making jokes with others, but professors cannot be concentrate on each students, so it might get out of the order controlling in class. And the effectiveness may not be as pleasing as expected. Thirdly, your course must have a plan that you must complete the lecturing within a semester. But if you take your courses into several discussions, which is difficult to control, especially to control the process, at sometimes, the discussion may change into an endless debate, and your ordered lecturing cannot end up with perfect period. Therefore, this solution does not fit the reality, either.

    The best solution to increase student participation is that giving proper praises to them in class. According to the article “Student Participation in the College Classroom: An Extended Multidisciplinary Literature Review” written by Kelly A. Rocca. “Another reason that students may not participate in class is because of their own personal fears of feeling inadequate in front of others, regardless of the logistics of the classroom setting.” (5) Indicating that one of the most important reasons for students’ absence in class is lacking in confidence, and some may because of the professors’ abuse. Take two of my college professors as an example, the first one is my professor of intensive reading the first college year, and she was very kind and intelligent. The peculiar characteristics is that she always encourage us to be better and never look down upon the students who have lower ability in course. And the next two years, we chose her optional courses competitively and never be absent, though she never calls a roll. Many students would make a presentation or express own opinions about the courses spontaneously, which is the real student participation in my point of view. While the other professor likes to blame the students having poor skills with sarcastically speaking, which irritate students very well, and there are seldom students would communicate with her both in class and after class. And it is also a failure of student participation.   

From this, we can figure out that giving students more praise and encouragement may be the most workable way to increase the student participation. The article "Increasing active student participation in histology" written by Virginia H. Black & P. R. Smith

    Neer (1987) found that students high in classroom apprehension feel anxious if the instructor stops talking or challenges them, and Myers and Rocca (2000) noted that when instructors challenged their students verbally, students were likely to become defensive and perceive the instructor as looking down on them. When students perceive their instructors as verbally aggressive, they are less likely to participate (Rocca, 2009). Kelly (1989) and Wade (1994) noted that it is important for instructors to encourage students to be respectful yet critical, while at the same time seeing the value in their ideas and praising students when appropriate (Nunn, 1996).

This part indicates that the importance of the role professors play, which means that sometimes students are more like mirrors. If you pay more attention to them, they would care more about the class and participate more. Otherwise, if you abuse them with terrible words, they would be defensive and hardly participating Therefore, the most effective way to increase student participation is giving them more respect and confidence.

    Somebody may disagree with such an idea for the possible indulgence of students. It is true, in some degree, that the students may be indulgent without critics from professors, because all the human beings have the impulse to be lazy all the time, and if the professors are too kind and just encourage them, the students may be less participate in class, even be absent. So this kind of suspect to the solution is reasonable. However, as college students, if they cannot restrain themselves from the laziness while the professors are kind and inspire them devotedly, they will not be thought that they have the qualification to be college students. It is not a matter of indulgence, but a matter of respect within each other, here means the respect between professors and students. Students need to be encouraged to be better and precede themselves, rather than abused by terrible words that would raise their rebellion rather than be more active and participate.

All in all, the student participation contains not only the basic attendance but also the interaction of students in class. As instructors, they must have had the experience of teaching courses where students participate frequently. The classes flow well, and all involved feel like the course was a success. Therefore, in order to reach this success, the professors are supposed to be more actively encourage students in class so that give their confidence and eager to participate more.

Works Cited

Rocca. Kelly A. “Student Participation in the College Classroom: An Extended Multidisciplinary Literature Review” Communication Education Vol. 59, No. 2, Apr. 2010, pp. 185213. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.

Black, V., & Smith, P., "Increasing active student participation in histology." The Anatomical Record Part B: The New Anatomist 278B.1 (2004) : 14-17. Web. 20 Nov. 2015