Hennie Steyn

Afrikaans as taal van onderrig en leer in skole en ander onderwysinstansies: "Ou" wyn in nuwe sakke

Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, Jaargang 56 No. 4-1: Desember 2016 doi.10.17159/2224-7912/2016/v56n4-1a10 Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, Jaargang 56 No. 2: Junie 2016 doi.10.17159/2224-7912/2016/v56n2a? Afrikaans as taal van onderrig en leer in skole en ander onderwysinstansies: “Ou” wyn in nuwe sakke Afrikaans as language of teaching and learning in schools: A “new” approach to an “old” problem

Innovative Learning Support for Teaching Large Classes

There are two forces currently impacting on higher education in South Africa. The first is a steep rise in student numbers and the pressure (socially, politically, demographically, as well as economically) to increase enrollments even more drastically. The second force is the effect of the global economic revolution on higher education, namely demands for an enhancement in productivity, for example, an increase (quantitatively and qualitatively) in the successful throughput of graduates with less input costs. Teaching of large classes is a reality throughout the world, especially because higher education institutions have been forced to increase class size in recent years if they wanted to remain profitable. It is therefore not surprising that the teaching of large class sizes has become a challenge to many lecturers. Despite the accepted dictum that the quality of teaching and assessment is more important than class size, the reality seems to be that large classes are here to stay (Muller 2010). Although most students and lecturers declare a preference for reduced class sizes and believe in their superior efficacy over large classes, the economy in the consumption of resources (both human and financial) accomplished in large classes will ensure their continued employment in the future (Muller 2010). Moreover, for many higher education institutions the increasing importance of guaranteed graduate throughput has seemed to accentuate the belief that there is a substantial trade-off between class size and student learning (Muller 2010; Van der Walt et al. 2011).