I was just looking over my materials from CCCC 2001 and found a handout for a
presentation on the hard data of class size limits for composition courses.
(from a presentation
by Deany Cheramie, Xavier University of Louisiana.)
I did not attend the presentation but you may be able to get more
information on the relationship between class size and student learning by
emailing her. This is a quote from the handout:
"Richard Haswell performed a calculation of the number of hours an
instructor spends on a single FYC course of 25 students in a single
semester. It includes "Four substantial out of class essays, one required
individual conference, and end of semester portfolio assessment." Haswell
claims it is a "conservative estimate."
For four (4) papers per student: 20 minutes commenting on the draft and an
additional 20 minutes commenting on a final draft per paper equals 40
minutes of assessment per paper times 4 papers means 160 minutes of
assessment per student.
Other evaluation and commentary per student: 30 minutes on in-class work
(quizzes and exercises), 15 minutes per conference, 25 minutes for portfolio
assessment. This all equals 70 minutes per student.
Total evaluation time per student is 230 minutes (4 hours). Multiply this
by 25 students and it equals to 5,750 minutes (96 hours).
Add to this the time the course meets - 3 hours per week times 15 weeks
equals 45 hours. Add also the preparation time-2 hours per course hour (2
times 45) which equals 90 hours. This equals to 135 hours per section of
composition.
Add the 135 hours of course meetings and preparation plus the 96 hours of
evaluation times and it equals to 231 hours of work per FYC course per
semester. Or the equivalent of 15.4 hours a week on a single course. If an
instructor is teaching 3 composition courses a semester, this is the
equivalent of working 46.2 hours a week just on the courses. Obviously, it
does not include the other time needed for meeting the scholarship and
service requirements of most tenured faculty."
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