Note for context: Penn State University is a large multi-campus public university, and Abington College is a small liberal arts college within the system. Our student body is minority majority, about ⅔ are on federal grants for low income students, and we have a low 4-year graduation rate. And yes, my classes are small. The maximum I ever teach is 25, but usually I’d be doing the exercise described above with a group of 18 or fewer.

I honestly don’t know what I’d do in a larger class because I’ve never experienced it. However, my classes are dynamic and discussion based, so participation is essential. If I was just lecturing, I don’t think I’d care if they were on their phones or not.

Anyway, I guess the main takeaway I’d want to get across isn’t that this particular method described in the blog is the one right way to do things; rather, it’s one example of how if you put metacognition and student autonomy at the center of your course design, you come up with different solutions to problems than if you are following a more authoritarian model. I think that basic point would apply to any classroom, any student population, any size, although of course you’d want to implement it differently according to the specifics.