John,
Two years ago, I asked much the same question about lecture size as
Engineering fought with English to try and get English to reduce the
amount of lecturing about writing that it did in the first year course.
I surveyed mostly engineering colleagues and tech writing colleagues
both Can and US.
In the US, the average class size for writing classes (16 universities
reporting) was 21. In Canada, the average was 64 but when those large
classes' tutorials were factored in the average was 29 (10 universities
reporting).
Please note that in Engineering at UT, the writing courses we control
have a cap of 22. Also note, that the English course for Arts and Sci
has a cap of 30. It is only when teaching engineers to write, that the
English Department in its infinite wisdom, chooses a class size of 320
as a pedagogically viable unit. English pays for the teaching of the
engineers. This, I believe, explains all.
regards
Rob Irish
************************************************
Dr. Robert Irish
Director of Language Across the Curriculum
Applied Science and Engineering
University of Toronto
416-978-6708
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