step2akristincollins

For this step in the clue project, I chose to study a lecture hall. I sat in this lecture hall for the time frame of one class period. This mass lecture was located in McCormick. The class was a music listening class and there was around 150 students in the class. There were rows of comfy seats, kind of in a stadium seating format so everyone could see. As the students filed in I noticed that she stopped to talk to a friend for awhile, then went to go sit in her seat. I continued to watch her and I found her actions kind of strange. She talked a lot to the friend a lot before sitting down but once she sat down, she didn't speak one word. Later on during the class I had asked a student about why she sat in the last row and her response was that it was assigned to her. I then knew why that girl earlier was not talkin once she got to her assigned seat. It was because she was not friends with the girl next to her. She didn't want to sit there.

Later on in the class I observed how well the students were paying attention. I know in my past experiences, I have always found it hard to concentrate in mass lectures, especially the classes that are three hours long. I noticed that the same students kept raising their hands and answering the questions asked. Was this because no one else knew the answers ? Or was it because no one else was paying attention to the lecture being given? We had the usual sleepers, the head nodders, and the usual students who were looking up at the clock every five seconds. Basically my question that arrived when observing this area was, do students actually obtain the same kind of knowledge attending a mass lecture class as they would a regular sized classroom?