STEM Teachers’ Conceptions of Teaching Large Classes

Teachers’ beliefs are an important factor affecting teaching practice and understanding them is critical for planning successful professional development support. However, relatively little research on conceptions has focussed on the teaching of large classes, despite the fact that large classes are central to STEM teaching provision in higher education. There has also been a lack of research investigating the nature of those beliefs, such as how they change and how context dependent they are. This study explores teachers’ conceptions of teaching large STEM classes from two perspectives. Firstly, sixteen STEM lecturers were interviewed about their experiences of teaching a large class using a phenomenographic approach through which four conceptions of teaching were identified: 1) Teaching as presentation 2) Teaching as guided learning and individual reflection 3) Teaching as active participation in the learning community 4) Teaching as promoting metacognition beyond the curriculum. Three dimensions of variation describe the differences between these conceptions: interactivity, the role of students, and the aim of the class. A secondary analysis of the interview data showed that teachers’ conceptions are context dependent, that they may hold multiple conceptions at the same time, and they can be aware of higher conceptions without adhering to them themselves.