Teaching Large Lecture Classes (20 year Anniversary)

 

Teaching large (200+ students) lecture classes has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my 23 year academic career.  If you had told me this back at the start of my career (when I was very a quite and very nervous instructor) I would not have been very skeptical.  It took a good 5-10 years of giving large lectures for me to really find my stride and comfort zone with them.  I am very glad that I stuck with it as I really do enjoy teaching these large lecture courses.

In this post I just wanted to detail what I have taught in terms of large lectures only, to remind me of the interesting places and topics, and the volume of students, I have had the good fortune to teach over the past two decades.

My first large lecture class was an Introduction to the history of political thought at Manchester University, for a class of 320 first year students.  And it was a team taught course, with 3-4 colleagues responsible for a few thinkers each.  I then taught the first year Intro to Politics course for 200 students each year at UW.  And since joining Queen’s I have taught both the fall and winter terms of our mandatory second year course Intro to Political Theory for 250-275 students every year except when on sabbatical (2013 and fall 2018). I think that puts the number at approximately 5000 different students, at those 3 universities.  The number would be much higher if I included the smaller classes I have also taught.  But I was moved to reflect on large lecture teaching since I have not had the opportunity to do that since March 2020 when the campus first closed because of the pandemic.  

2002 Manchester University, History of Political Thought, 1^st year course, 325 students

2003 Manchester University, Freedom and Equality, 2^nd year course, 200 students

            2003 Waterloo University, Introduction to Politics, 1^st year course, 200 students

            2004 Waterloo University, Introduction to Politics, 1^st year course, 200 students

            2005 Waterloo University, Introduction to Politics, 1^st year course, 200 students

            2007 Waterloo University, Introduction to Politics, 1^st year course, 200 students

2009 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 250 students (fall)

2010 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 250 students (winter)

2010 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 250 students (fall)

2011 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 250 students (winter)

2011 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 250 students (fall)

2012 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 250 students (winter)

2012 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 250 students (fall)

2013 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 250 students (winter)

2014 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (fall)

2015 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (winter)

2016 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (fall)

2016 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (winter)

2017 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (fall)

2018 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (winter)

2019 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (winter)

[virtual] 2020 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (fall)

[virtual] 2020 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (winter)

[virtual] 2021 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (fall)

[virtual] 2022 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (winter)

 

This coming fall term I anticipate teaching my second year course in-person to approximately 275 students.  This year it will only be a one semester course, with the second semester being offered as a third year course starting in 2024.  

So I look forward to experiencing the joy and engagement of giving large lectures again!  I have really missed it and engaging with the students in-person.

 

Cheers,

Colin