Jean's Dean has posed the question, shall we say, aggressively.
> There is an untested assumption ... that it is only possible to
> teach writing in small classes; yet no work seems to have been
> done that tests the outcome of this teaching method.
"Only possible" creates a dichotomy that favors the answer, yes,
of course it's possible to teach writing in classes of 100.
Difficult, and done badly, but possible. So I'd suggest the
first thing is to rephrase his statement: What's the evidence
that it's much better (more effective, in terms of consequences
for the students and the faculty) to teach writing in small
classes, and what exactly is "small"?
That the assumption holds is, also, hardly "untested." There's
lots of evidence. Here are some starting points:
More than a Number: Why Class Size Matters
NCTE Position on Class Size and Teacher Workload, Kindergarten
to College
http://www.ncte.org/positions/more_than_a_number.shtml
NCTE Statement on Class Size and Teacher Workload: College
http://www.ncte.org/positions/class-size-college.shtml
ADE Guidelines for Class Size and Workload for College and
University Teachers of English: A Statement of Policy
http://www.ade.org/policy/index.htm
Tenn. Class-Size Study Finds Long-Term Benefits
http://www.edweek.org/ew/vol-18/34class.h18
That's just off google; the CompPile online bibliography offers
100 hits on "class-size" (you need the hyphen).
http://comppile.tamucc.edu/
-- Russ
St. Thomas University
http://www.StThomasU.ca/~hunt/
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