Newsletter November 2025: Teaching in exercise classes with around 20–40 students

Some key strengths of smaller classrooms include close contact with the instructor, personal engagement, and the opportunity to participate in discussions about course content in a safe space, make mistakes, and learn from mistakes. Instructors often serve as role models, both generally and within the specific course, as they have completed the course themselves. Mastery is essential for retention and motivation to study, and it is particularly in exercise classes, that this can be fostered through role models, feedback, a strong learning community, and adjusting the level of difficulty to match students’ abilities.

Why Does It Sometimes Go Wrong?

When something goes wrong in exercise classes, we typically see students stop attending classes during the semester or become passive in learning activities. The spark fades or disappears, and in worst case, the student drops out of teaching or leaves the study. 

Let’s Take a Look at What These Classes Are Used For

The way exercise classes are used in the teaching at SDU varies. They range from help with solving exercises, facilitated case discussions, project supervision, instructor-led exam preparation … you name it.

Across several faculties, teaching often involves solving many exercises - many exercises! This is often based on the understanding that the subject is learned through practice. This tradition goes all the way down to primary school.

And yes, solving assignments has its merits, but considering the desire for deep learning and the competencies expected of a modern academic, we will need to reconsider whether intensive exercise-solving is relevant for students’ academic development.

Deep learning is achieved when students intellectually process the material and are challenged through dialogue and are actively processing the material. Therefore, the classroom should be designed so students are actively engaged and interact with each other. To help students gain deeper insight and develop argumentation skills for using, understanding, and selecting academic theories and tools, try designing cases for discussion from different perspectives on the content and include dialogue as an organised part of the sessions.

It can be challenging for a course responsible teacher to see alternatives. Check out Theme Sheet 1 for inspiration for inspiration on how to maintain content quality and the benefits of small classroom teaching, if your course relies heavily on exercises. By simply adjusting the number of exercises and integrating other competencies, you can boost motivation and students’ feeling of mastery. Remember: big steps start with small steps.

5 Pedagogical Focus Points in Exercise Classes

Here are five important focus points when planning your exercise classes:

Variaty of Methods Can Engage More Students Actively and Challenge the Instructors

Teaching can be organized in many ways. Perhaps material you usually present in a lecture format could work better as a small two-week project, where students explore how core concepts are interrelated and details a field of knowledge together? Then the exercise classes serve as supervision. There is plenty of inspiration in SDU CTL’s Method Catalogue.

As the course coordinator, you design the intended learning path for your students’ way into the subject, considering the five focus points mentioned above. This suggests not only the order and appropriate amount of content but also how students could work with it. It is rare for students to achieve the course objectives through a single method, so make sure to vary your methods.

The learning path created by the course coordinator naturally includes an idea of what the instructors will do in the exercise classes, but the instructors have a dual purpose: they must also ensure that the class works well together and develops into a safe learning community in which the instructor plays a well-defined role.

For some classes, this comes naturally and for others, it requires effort. Instructors will often need to refine methods to create positive dynamics within the class. Such flexibility may change the pace that you intended with the result that all exercises or subquestions to a case is not worked with in that lesson. Research shows that unsafe learning environments and stressful situations lead to poor learning outcomes. Therefore, it is essential that instructors feel free to interpret the framework, so they can make the necessary adjustments in the classroom.

Does It Work?

It is always important to know whether your teaching achieves its intended effect. Try a mid-course evaluation focusing on students’ perceptions of their learning, willingness to participate, and motivation. Ask what changes they might need. Sometimes students will request what you are trying to move away from – this may be because, they are in a transition to the more student-centered teaching, where the teacher acts as facilitator and supervisor and students feel that they loose some of the safety from the teachers’ leadership. This signals that you have a communication task that in incomplete. Also, pay attention to what stresses your students when reviewing course evaluations See Theme Sheet 3.

Engage in dialogue about how you and the instructors can meet the students’ needs for academic reassurance without compromising active learning methods. When the teacher dominates the content, it often comes at the expense of students’ deep, personalized insight. Aim to balance these aspects through good communication.

Include exercise classes in the course’s final evaluation. Maintain regular contact with your instructors and visit the exercise classes to ensure mutual respect. This helps support instructors and prevents quality issues in evaluations. Instructors do an incredible job!