Explore publications.

This study investigates the effects of large class sizes on students' learning experiences at a South African university of technology. With increasing enrolment in higher education, many universities face the challenge of managing large classes, which raises concerns about the quality of teaching and learning. This study used a quantitative research design to gather and analyse data through structured questionnaires administered to third-year undergraduate students in three departments with high enrolment numbers in the Faculty of Management Sciences at one university of technology. The findings reveal that large classes have a negative impact on students' ability to engage with academic content, interact with lecturers, and receive timeous feedback. Students reported feeling disconnected, overlooked, and less motivated in overcrowded learning environments. The study highlights areas where technological tools and improved pedagogical strategies could mitigate some of the challenges associated with large-class learning. The study also investigated how academic support services offered by the Teaching and Learning Development Centre (TLDC), the Writing Centre, and the Student Counselling Centre affect students’ learning and performance. The paper concludes by recommending strategies and support systems to enhance student learning in large class contexts.

Globally, student assessment surveys are utilised to enhance the quality of teaching and learning. Student evaluation questionnaires require a substantial investment of effort from both students and teachers.  This research aims to elucidate students' attitudes towards evaluation questionnaires, hence enhancing comprehension of the quality of information in completed assessments. The research encompassed undergraduate students enrolled in a Business and Information Management program within the Faculty of Accounting and Informatics at the Durban University of Technology, Midlands Campus, South Africa. The experiences and attitudes of students about teaching evaluation questionnaires were examined through metaphorical drawings and focus group discussions. The results reveal that students possess both favourable and unfavourable opinions toward student ratings. Positive themes encompass assessments as a systematic procedure and a chance for students to propose modifications. Negative attitudes encompass perceptions of evaluations as oppressive and threatening, reflecting a lack of profound contemplation by students when filling out the questionnaire, and raising enquiries about the subsequent activities made after completing the evaluations. Findings elucidate several elements influencing student evaluations of education, including the timing of administration, the individuals responsible for providing them, and the methods employed in their administration. The document advocates for other methods of gathering student feedback and the discontinuation of paper-based surveys. Feedback may be acquired using online questionnaires and qualitative interviews. Furthermore, learning analytics technologies can be integrated into the LMS utilised for administering online surveys, facilitating the provision of tailored feedback to individual students.

The study covers AD practitioners' definitions of trust, levels of trust, and responsibilities in developing trust with university academics. It also studies how culture affects trust and how AD practitioners might build trust amongst university lecturers and institutions. Thematic and content analysis were performed on six AD practitioners selected for sampling. The findings show that trust can mean self-confidence, being respected, and doing professional work. AD professionals express self-confidence in their competence and trust in their colleagues. Having one's contributions recognised and appreciated fosters trust and belonging. Professional obligations require trust in the system and the conviction that everyone is contributing to similar aims. The survey also finds scepticism, with some practitioners perceiving academic progress as a burden. The report emphasises the repercussions of broken trust in collaborative efforts and recommends university workshops to establish trust, meaningful participation, and community among AD practitioners and university academics. To boost student learning, AD practitioners must create trust, according to the report. It suggests studying trust-building tactics to create collaborative connections and overcome faculty resistance to academic advancement.

The study aims to explore inadequate pedagogical training for higher education and strategies that could enhance effective teaching. The study adopted a constructivist paradigm and qualitative research design as it is qualitative in nature. Bandura’s social cognitive theory forms the basis for the study. The theory holds that learning occurs in a social context, interacts with the surroundings and actions, and applies the already stored schemata to acquire new knowledge. Data were generated from the critical review of the relevant literature. It was interpreted and analyzed thematically following Castle and Amanda’s five steps of thematic analysis. The results showed inadequate funding and wrong assumptions about the teaching abilities of lecturers with advanced degrees. In addition, there is also a lack of formal training programs, which contributes to the poor state of teacher training. The study revealed that enough funding and transparent lecturers’ pedagogical training structures can enhance lecturers’ teaching abilities. The study concludes that teacher training for higher education is insufficient. However, proper financial support for relevant and effective teacher training programmes could improve lecturers’ teaching skills and thus better students’ performance. The study recommends that all lecturers in higher education should go under formal teacher training. Universities should also source funds to enhance formal teacher training for novice lecturers. There should be frequent refresher courses on the latest teaching methods for gurus already in the field.

The demands of raising education at a classroom level to international standards require a nuanced analytical lens involving multiple perspectives to contribute to the best practices. Most classroom research adopts a singular perspective, usually from researchers who are familiar with the nuances of the classroom context under study. In other words, published studies involving classroom observations are often analyzed by insiders who already have the insight to understand the situated dynamics of the classroom interactions they analyze. While this is an important analytical orientation, this stance may overlook important insights about teaching and learning that outsiders’ perspectives may be able to identify. The study employed a qualitative approach. Which was guided by the dialogic interactive theory. The methodological approach in Japan was face-to-face semi-structured interviews while in the South African context, virtual data generation methods were employed to interview teachers on the classroom interactions with students. The study population was English students, while in South Africa it was health course teachers who taught students from various health professions. A total of eight teachers were purposively recruited in South Africa with one student participant in Japan. Findings revealed similarities and differences in dialogic interactions and the interpretation of such interactions. Participants from both contexts had deliberate silence and reluctance to speak which was interpreted differently by the teachers, and lack of reciprocal and purposive engagements by students. Based on the dialogic interactive theory, it can be concluded that the aspirations to achieve an inclusive quality of education can best be achieved when teachers are transparent about the expected interactions for all the tenets of the dialogic theory to be achieved. It is therefore recommended that broader conversations about the analysis of situated dynamics of classroom interaction be encouraged to yield critical insights for education towards the attainment of inclusive quality education.

This study investigates the relationship between teaching style and learning effectiveness and further examines the mediating effect of learning motivation in the relationship between teaching style and learning effectiveness. This study adopted the undergraduate students of University A in China as the research sample and conducted a quantitative survey to test the hypothetical relationship between these variables. The results showed that (i) the teacher-centered teaching style significantly negatively affected professional knowledge. (ii) the student-centered and the eclectic-centered teaching styles significantly positively affected professional knowledge and comprehensive ability, respectively. In addition, the hierarchical regression technique was used to examine the mediating effect of learning motivation. The findings revealed that (iii) intrinsic learning motivation had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between teaching style (student-centered and eclectic-centered teaching style) and learning effectiveness (professional knowledge and comprehensive ability). (iv) extrinsic motivation partially mediates the relationship between student-centered teaching style and learning effectiveness (professional knowledge and comprehensive ability).

This study attempts to explore a major issue of higher education in Bangladesh that is, problems related to large size classes. The objectives of the study are to identify the problems faced by the students and the teachers; and to find out the ways of teaching effectively in large Sociology classes. This is a literature review article which has investigated the current teaching practices in the Sociology Classes at the affiliated colleges of the National University of Bangladesh. This paper also discussed the issue from the global perspective. It identified that large classes create a lot of problems for the students and the teachers resulting in the lower quality of higher education. Finally the paper concluded that teachers’ training, appointing supporting stuffs and ensuring necessary logistic support can be the possible solution of this great problem.