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How long to prep for intro-level courses?

In our new “how can we help you?” thread, a reader writes:

How long should I spend on teaching prep for intro-level courses? I’ve heard some say to try to take no more than 2 hours per class, but this is vague. Am I spending 2 hours just on what we are doing in class? Or does that 2 hours also include reading the text (for the first time?)? Does the 2 hours rule govern new preps as well?

For some references on the advice: Trevor Hedberg’s 7 Years Later seems to recommend this rule, as well as Jason Brennan’s Good Work if You Can Get It.

What do readers think?

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8 responses to “How long to prep for intro-level courses?”

  1. Anonymous

    I think the 2 hour/class meeting rule sounds right for a new prep, or a course you are actively reworking. Maybe even a little more time would be reasonable: finding and completing readings, thinking about in-class activities and exercises, and so on takes time. For instance, I am teaching an intro level PPE course for this first time, and I have spent probably 2 to 3 hours of time planning each class meeting, where such planning includes all of what you mention.

    For me, however, this time drops off sharply once I have taught a course several times and students seem alright with it, i.e., I have several strong evaluations. For example, at my teaching-focused university, I teach intro every semester, and I will often teach multiple sections of it. I have a calendar of readings that I know works, and a little lesson plan–the song and dance, the clown show of getting students engaged–for each class meeting. I essentially do zero prep for intro. I change things sometimes, but the core is the same and the machine is well oiled.

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  2. AnAnon

    I don’t see how the answer to this could be anything other than “as long as it takes to do an acceptable job but not so long as to keep you from doing whatever else you need to do,” which will vary far too much to give a generally applicable answer.

    “Am I prepared enough?” “How can I prep more efficiently?” “What kind of class formats require less prep?” are questions worth asking. I don’t see how “Does reading the text count as part of two hour rule?” is, in part because there is no such rule.

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  3. Anonymous

    As someone who has been on a 4/4 for several years, my answer is: what is prep?

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  4. Anonymous

    I am surprised to hear about this rule. But I think the idea behind it is rather that (1) do not try to stuff too much content into an intro class (2) make sure to allocate enough time towards research. Other than that, I don’t think there needs to be an optimal time or limit on how long to prepare. Personally I find it hugely time consuming to figure out logistic things, but easy-ish to come with good exercises. I also find it really hard to explain things at intro level, much harder than teaching uninformed advanced students. So I don’t need to prepare for grad seminar much. Plus the intro students become even more elementary and unprepared by the year and this becomes an infinite time sink for me.

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  5. Anonymous

    The 2:1 guideline is supposed to be a suggestion for limiting overpreparation so that you have time to do other important things; don’t take it as a rule. The first time you teach a class, or the first time you teach a particular paper/chapter, maybe it will take a little longer. Earlier in your career, it will probably take longer. Later, you can probably get it under 0.5:1 for classes you teach regularly.

    “Prep” here means anything you need to do to prepare to teach. Doing the reading, making slides and lecture notes, planning discussions or in class activities, and so on.

    There’s that saying, a task will expand to fill the available time. Limiting how much time you give to prep is a way to focus your overall effort on what is important rather than what is urgent.

    Think of it in terms of marginal utility. Is the next hour of prep going to make the class that much more effective? Probably not. So, it isn’t a good use of your time. Besides, students, especially beginning students, can process much less info than you might think.

    Think of it also in terms of what your job performance is being evaluated on. If research is what will earn you tenure, then you should be putting enough time into that instead of other things like teaching or service.

    Of course, you need to do enough prep (however long that takes) to make the class *good enough*. YMMV on what that means, according to type of institution, type of employment, how long you’ve been on the job, and how seriously the institution takes student course evaluations. With experience, most of us realize that “good enough” takes much less effort than we used to think.

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  6. Daniel

    To put AnAnon’s point another way, you should prep for more time if more prep time would be valuable and you have the time to spend prepping. This means there is no rule that you should prep for X hours per class.

    One big piece of advice: be honest with yourself about whether more prep time would be valuable. Some people feel nervous about teaching and think that if they put more time into prepping this will make their teaching better and thus allay their nervousness. In fact there are usually diminishing returns, such that more prep time eventually doesn’t really make your teaching better (and might even make it worse), and investing so much of yourself in prep often just makes you more nervous.

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  7. Michel

    Spend however long it takes to do the reading, plus an hour or two (tops) to prepare your slides and think of activities. You can refine stuff the next several times you teach the course.

    Just by virtue of reading, understanding, and mostly remembering the reading, you’re miles ahead of the class.

    Like anon above, I teach 4/4 or 5/5. I basically don’t prep at all unless it’s a new course.

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  8. Anonymous

    My experience is similar to what Michel said above.

    After reading the assigned materials, and if it is a new prep, I usually need at least 2 hours to prepare for the slides/handouts, in-class (group or individual) worksheets, to check if there are interesting videos (or at least some pics), and so on.

    Even if I have taught a course more than 5 times, I still spend 45 minutes to 1 hour to prepare for a class. (I tried to keep it within 30 minutes before and failed…) This usually includes adjusting contents based on my last experience, updating in-class worksheets, thinking about questions to ask based on the current group’s interests (e.g. if they are relatively quiet I prepare more substantive in-class worksheets but if they are active I prepare more structured questions).

    I feel I spend way more time thinking about *how* to teach certain materials than reading materials and writing lecture notes.

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