Building a Network of Large-Class Educational Leaders Across Campus

Each year I attend Teaching Discovery Days and Texas Teach-Up and leave motivated to try new teaching practices. The majority of the practices I observe during Texas Teach-Up, hear about at conferences, or read about in the literature need substantial adaptations to work in my large classes. Figuring out how to make new practices work well and remain manageable sometimes seems insurmountable. Discussions with others who teach large courses often provide insights and ideas, but in any given department at UT there may be just one or just a few professors who teach these large class sizes. This leads to a lack of connections and discussions that center around the challenges to effective teaching in large class sections. That lack of faculty connections equates to lost opportunities for improving our teaching, our students’ successes, and our building of inclusive classroom communities.