I purposely went from a 50-minute class to an hour and a half class the second time I taught this course. This longer class period leaves at least 20 minutes for discussion; sometimes before, we ended up with only a five to ten minute discussion period. I’m really glad that I did this, as I find it to be a positive change. It’s critical to give students time to discuss. Their thinking gets expanded and broadened when they consider the material in another way: a multimodality approach really is best.
I don’t know how well this discussion–heavy approach would work in class of 50 students. Last fall I had 25 students, two of whom were graduates. This fall I have 16 students, 11 of whom are graduates. The classroom has a diverse mixture of majors, including Indigenous Studies, Education, Psychology undergraduates, and graduate students in Clinical Psychology, which I was concerned would increase its chances of being fractionated. However, that has not happened. There is no feeling of a hierarchy or intimidation.
