I have noticed a strange thing. I am teaching a class with 21 students another 4 classes with 50 or so students, and a class with 110 students.
The classes with 50 students are going well, I get the "I want to sleep but I got to fake interest" faces, as well as truly interested students. I started teaching classes of 45-50 so I find having a few sleepy heads normal.
My class with 110 students is in a large auditorium and I feel that I am doing great in this class. I get lots of laughter and actually one or two students in the back try to get my attention to ask questions. This could be an illusion, since I can not see their faces and I only think they love my lecture.
The small class of 21 students has one tired student and the rest are actually interested. They just maybe good actors.
This made me wonder how much of this difference is due to the students?
How much is due to change in my behavior toward classes of differing sizes?
How much is just statistic? The probability of having a sleepy head in a class of 50 is higher than in a class of 21 students. Or in a class of 110 there is a higher probability of having interested students that have read compared to a class of 50 students. This was my favorite explanation till I noticed that both proportional and in absolute numbers I have more well prepared interested students in my class of 21!
Is this an Outlier?
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