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Mattie Davis's picture

Entertaining tangential conversation: time alotted + class size

For our purposes, this morning,  I felt a sufficient amount out time was allowed for entertaining alternative explanations from the participants.  This seemed to be evident from the groups' responses to questions at the end of the lecture, which were designed to check the groups' understanding of the information presented in the lecture.  Our group size matched the time alotted.  After the lesson, I felt that we had used our 'valuable time' wisely.  Yes, I truly believe that a group is a diverse population.  Yes, I do believe that most members of a group have relevant and important information to share on various subject matter. However, given a much larger class size, it would probably be "overkill" to entertain explanations and comments from every, or even most members a large group.

In the preparation of a lecture/lesson, there are certain outlined key points the teacher wants to "bring home" to each participant.  Once these key points have been mentioned in the culminating conversations, it may be time to move on before it becomes boring, drawn out, redundant watered down, etc., or simply just a waste of "valuable time".  Consider the lesson that has been alotted one hour.  If there are 35 students in the group, should each student be allowed time to speak?  If each student is allowed to speak, what should the minimal amount of time be?  How much time would actually be left for implementing the lesson?                                                                                                                       Each lesson and group are different.  Individual consideration should be given for each individual group, with consideration given for size of group, maturity of group, familiarity with subject matter, etc.

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