Teaching in small rooms
Seminars of twelve are not a luxury. They change what a student is willing to say out loud.
The room seats fourteen and the seminar has twelve students. That is not an accident of enrolment. It is the number at which everyone can be heard without raising their voice.
What small rooms make possible
In a large lecture, a student can hide. In a seminar of twelve, hiding is a temporary strategy at best. That is uncomfortable, and it is also the point. The reading is not background; it is the thing we are going to disagree about for ninety minutes.
Small rooms also make it harder for a teacher to bluff. You cannot rely on a polished performance if the same twelve people will ask you a follow-up question next week.
The cost
Small seminars are expensive. They require more teaching hours, more rooms, and more preparation per student. A university that claims to value them has to protect them in the timetable rather than in the prospectus.
- Cap the seminar, even when demand is high.
- Publish the reading early enough that students can do it.
- Keep the same group together for a term.
- Give teachers time to read the room, not just the syllabus.
A practical measure
At the end of each term we ask a simple question: did every student speak at least once in the final three weeks? The answer is not a ranking. It is a check on whether the format is doing what we say it does.
If the answer is no, the room was too full, the pace was too fast, or the question was not worth asking. Usually it is the last one.
Elena Marsh
Professor of Urban Studies
Elena teaches urban studies and writes about ordinary cities, public space, and the small decisions that make a campus feel cared for.
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