Towards Responsible Massification: Some Pointers for Supporting Lecturers

Teaching large classes poses many challenges to lecturers where massification is a reality in higher education. There are implications for both teaching and effective learning in this context. The need for accountability to learners in education provision served as motivation for a study of large classes in the largest faculty of one university where enrolment figures had recently increased. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 14 lecturers who teach on average over 500 students in one class. Lecturers reported challenges and experiences related to the higher education environment, resources and support, and teaching and learning. The article provides pointers for supporting lecturers who are teaching large classes based on their identified tensions due to challenges they face. Taking cognisance of lecturers’ experiences could guide institutions towards relevant support for academics in the large-class setting and ultimately contribute to accountability and responsible massification of higher education.     

The Relationship between Increasing Enrolment and Student Academic Achievement in Higher Education

This article reports on a study of which the main aim was to provide insight into whether increasing the enrolment of large classes influences student academic achievement at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), City, South Africa. The massification of higher education has led to greater numbers of students being enrolled in contact programmes. there is a widely accepted inverse relationship between class size and academic achievement for small class sizes and it would be speculative to extend the same understanding to larger class sizes. It is within this context that a cross-sectional study was conducted during which student achievement was analysed against increasing the enrolment of already large classes, in selected undergraduate modules at UKZN over a period of four years. convenience sampling and judgemental sampling were used to select modules in the discipline of Supply Chain Management (SCM). The findings revealed that while the average class size increased significantly, the pass rates remained constant. Based on the study findings, it was concluded that an increase in the enrolment of already large classes does not influence student academic achievement. It is recommended that the study be replicated in other schools and faculties where disciplines have experienced similar increases in the enrolment of large classes, thereby presenting an opportunity to either validate or dispute the study results. It is further recommended that the role of peer effects be subjected to further study to establish whether they have any influence on academic achievement. These results are expected to encourage future debate on how faculties manage increasing student enrolments at higher education institutions.     

知识经济社会成人教育面临的机遇、挑战及对策

知识经济正在改变着我们政治、经济和社会生活的各个方面。知识经济在物质保障、教育观念及教育手段、教育法规等方面所引起的变化，给我国成人教育带来了发展的机遇。同时也给成人教育带来了挑战，如传统教育观念的挑战、规模特色的挑战、专业设置的挑战、人才质量规格及发展态势等方面的挑战。为此，笔者认为可以采取教育思想改变、规模适当扩张、专业和课程设置、现存教学模式改革等基本对策，以应对知识经济给成人教育所带来的挑战，抓住机遇发展成人教育。     

Building an evolving method and materials for teaching legal writing in large classes

In South Africa and in other parts of the world, many professions are bemoaning the poor ability of many graduates to communicate their skills and knowledge effectively once they enter the workplace. Increasingly, pressure is placed on higher education to do more in terms of equipping future professionals with the necessary critical reading, research, thinking and writing skills the workplace demands. However, in South Africa especially, the demand for access to higher education is resulting in increased admissions, and in many lecturers standing in front of larger classes filled with students from a wide range of home and educational backgrounds with ‘variable’ commands of English as a medium of instruction and communication (Greenbaum and Mbali in S Afr Linguist Appl Lang Stud 20:233–244, 2002). This makes the task of equipping these students with disciplinary knowledge and skills a challenge. In responding to this challenge, the Law Faculty at the University of the Western Cape, in collaboration with a writing specialist, initiated a project aimed at transforming the way in which legal writing was taught at first year level. The overall aim was to start training students, from first year, to adapt their thinking and writing to the kinds of knowledge and practice required by academic study as well as the legal profession. The project was successful in achieving its modest aims, but certain challenges remain. This paper reflects critically on the development and evolution of the model for teaching legal writing in large classes. It argues that teaching legal writing in large classes requires creative and sustainable approaches so that students can become active and critical writers, readers and thinkers over time in this, or any, field.     

Development of higher education and employment in the Federal Republic of Germany

In the Federal Republic of Germany — as in many other industrialized countries higher education has, under the influence of social, economic and political forces, developed from a relatively small, selective and elite-oriented to a large system of mass education. The increasing number of students and university teachers, and the expansion of scientific and technological methods and knowledge has brought about claims for genuine organizational transformations and for massive financial resources. This development has created a number of severe problems in the relationship of the respective socio-economic and political sub-systems; in particular, the relationship between higher education and the labour market has to be considered as a vital but unresolved problem.This article gives a short account of the quantitative development of the German universities and the labour market in the last two decades. It also describes the organizational transformations which followed the federal framework law on higher education (Hochschulrahmengesetz) of January 1976, and deals with some aspects of research in relation to such problems.     

Expansion,differentiation, and the persistence of social class inequalities in British higher education

Conventional political wisdom has it that educational expansion helps to reduce socioeconomic inequalities of access to education by increasing equality of educational opportunity. The counterarguments of Maximally Maintained Inequality (MMI) and Effectively Maintained Inequality (EMI), in contrast, contend that educational inequalities tend to persist despite expansion because those from more advantaged social class backgrounds are better placed to take up the new educational opportunities that expansion affords (MMI) and to secure for themselves qualitatively better kinds of education at any given level (EMI). This paper sets out to test the predictions of the MMI and EMI hypotheses against empirical data for the case of Britain where higher education expanded dramatically during the 1960s and again during the early 1990s. The results show that quantitative inequalities between social classes in the odds of higher education enrolment proved remarkably persistent for much of the period between 1960 and 1995, and began to decline only during the early 1990s, after the enrolment rate for the most advantaged social class had reached saturation point. Throughout this same 35 year period, qualitative inequalities between social classes in the odds of enrolment on more traditional and higher status degree programmes and at ‘Old’ universities remained fundamentally unchanged. In short, social class inequalities in British higher education have been both maximally and effectively maintained.     

提高大学生思想政治素质是高职院校的重要课题

二十一世纪的中国,经济腾飞,但政治思想和道德素养教育方面滞后,尤在不断扩招的高职院校中表现突出。为保证高职毕业升在社会主义市场经济浪潮中健康发展,必须充分发挥高职院校中的政工、政教等五支常规队伍的整体合一式的过功能的教育基地的作用,重视政治思想和道德素养的教育。     

高校专业课教学中开展思想政治教育的可行性分析

大学生思想政治教育是一个永恒的课题。在新形势下,高校思想政治教育工作的复杂性、“两课”教学的困境以及知识经济的客观要求等都要求在专业课教学中也应进行思想政治的教育和渗透。这不但是必要的,而且是可行的,这是教育的本质的体现。专业课教师可以通过言传身教、心理诱导等方法,灵活地对学生实施思想政治教育。     

Teaching quality matters in higher education: a case study from Turkey and Slovakia

Despite a growing number of studies on the effectiveness of teaching and quality in higher education, reports indicate that more work is needed regarding meeting expectations in teaching quality, in particular, in investigating lecturers’ application of pedagogical knowledge when transferring discipline-specific knowledge. This study aimed to investigate the perceptions of both students and lecturers on teaching in higher education in two countries. The researcher used both quantitative and qualitative data in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of the research problems and to obtain sufficiently detailed data. The results indicated a difference between students’ and lecturers’ perceptions regardless of country, highlighting a discrepancy over views on the pedagogical competence of lecturers. Although this was a small-scale study in two countries, the results pointed to the failure of university lecturers to meet students’ expectations in terms of teaching quality. The study suggested that, regardless of subject area, it would be beneficial to emphasize self-reflection, awareness, improvement of teaching skills, and consequent changes in students learning. University administrations should also have realistic expectations of lecturers.     

The Role of Private Universities and Colleges in the Spatial Restructuring of Higher Education in Poland

The development of private higher education institutions in Poland since 1989 has become a thorny political issue. The question is discussed in terms of the overall expansion of higher education in Poland, the Polish national development strategy, the spatial distribution of higher education institutions in Poland, and the role of higher education in the formation of the Polish national e´lite. The author argues strongly in favour of the equal treatment of private higher education.     

高校招生中“宽进”之宽度的实证分析

随着经济体制的转型和社会的迅速发展,人民群众对知识渴求的增大,高校招生实行宽进严出势在必行。但是,一方面要考虑到高校自身的承受能力,另一方面还要考虑能否最大效度地推动国民经济的进一步发展,故探讨高校招生的最佳宽度显得尤为必要。选取1992-2004年间的高等教育毛入学率和人均GDP两个指标,运用实证的方法,假设在不扩招的情况下,为推动国民经济更好地发展,计算出1998-2004年间相对适度的毛入学率大约在8．76-16．82％之间。     

印度高等教育大规模扩张中公平 与质量的冲突及其根源

印度自独立之初就将起点公平作为教育发展战略，大规模扩张高等教育规模，目前印度高等教育机构数量全球第一。“量”的急剧扩充导致“质”的持续下滑；片面追求起点公平忽视过程公平和结果公平，使得不同性别、阶层、区域和贫富之间的教育不公平问题加剧。印度高等教育公平与质量冲突的根源在于社会阶层割裂阻滞弱势群体的教育意识，高等教育平庸化导致优质教育匮乏，管理体系羸弱使政策成效不彰。印度要实现高等教育高质量公平道阻且长。     

中国高等教育扩招与经济振兴

中国高等教育从精英教育到大众教育的扩招对经济发展产生了双重影响:既有对短期经济增长的直接影响,也有人力资本积累对长期经济增长的影响.通过描述中国高等教育体系在这次急剧扩招中的主要变化,并用凯恩斯经济原理和人力资本理论分析高等教育扩招与经济发展的近期或远期目标之间的关系,可以发现,“扩招能在短期内振兴经济”的结论是不成熟的,因为中国正在实现其聚集人力资本的长远目标.然而,高校毕业生的失业率越来越高,这在不断危害其自身利益.     

Reflections on the Field of Higher Education: time,space and sub‐fields

The objective of this study is to define the field of higher education and clarify its identity. It examines three analytical dimensions which, it proposes, shape the field: knowledge, approach and community. It argues that contextual knowledge around the issue of higher education has defined the field but has not determined techniques that are specific to it. The core elements of these three dimensions— contextual knowledge, the diversity in approaches and the multi‐disciplinary and loosely coupled community—suggest diversity in the field and in its identity rather than coherence and consolidation. The two dimensions of approach and community partially relate to the development of the field as a product of efforts to solve financial and management problems caused by the expansion of higher education after World War II in the US, and, in terms of experience, in Europe where expansion came much later, increasing public interest in higher education.     

The political economy of education and inequality: reflections on Piketty

Piketty’s Capitalism in the twenty-first century provides a superb, detailed historical analysis of the evolution of income and wealth inequality. Piketty demonstrates vast and increasing inequality that he argues might possibly be tempered in the future by economic growth and educational expansion supplemented by government redistributive policies. However, Piketty has little understanding of the reproductive nature of education, the limits of economic growth, or the fundamental problems of capitalism. In this paper, I depart from a political economy perspective to examine the bankruptcy of the underlying neoclassical economic theory he relies upon. In particular, I discuss how Piketty mistakenly sees capitalism as, in large part, a meritocracy, and the implications for education.     

A Study of the Views of Full-time Further Education Lecturers Regarding their College Corporations and Agencies of the Further Education Sector

Full-time lecturers in further education colleges in England form an occupational group which has been subject to many varied and demanding changes, particularly since the incorporation of colleges in 1993. Prior to 1993 lecturers were employees of local education authorities and, as such, were part of an often remote local authority personnel administration framework. Since 1993 full-time lecturers have become employees of college corporations. Most corporations have introduced human resource management practices which have changed the distant employment relationship lecturers had with LEAs. At the same time, the consequence of financial constraints and increasing competition in the further education sector has emphasised the already existing core-periphery organisational model in colleges which has now led to fewer full-time lecturers (core) and more part-time lecturers (periphery). The question of the professional status of lecturers has also been raised by, for example, College Employers Forum rhetoric in the early post-incorporation phase to encourage contractual change; the development of Qualified Teacher Status for primary and secondary teachers only; the debate about further education membership of a General Teaching Council for England, and the expansion of a new vocational curricula which seemed to dilute the educational experience of students. This article considers the views that a sample of full-time lecturers have about their employment experience and is an initial report of a research study which looks at the employment relationship between full-time lecturers and their college corporations. Views and perceptions of 687 full-time lecturers' responses to a postal questionnaire are presented and reviewed. This initial report suggests that, unlike the picture nationally for the UK workforce (as presented in a recent Institute of Personnel and Development report - Guest & Conway, 1998), full-time lecturers in further education colleges may be experiencing a violated psychological contract with the consequences for their employment relationship of loss of trust and a significant, depressing effect on commitment, job satisfaction and work performance.     

知识经济的双重视角

从经济和教育两个不同的角度对知识经济进行考察,既可加深对知识经济特征及其发展历程的充分了解,又可全面认识教育尤其是高等教育在知识经济时代的地位和作用。     

Massification and the large lecture theatre: from panic to excitement

In this article I examine the role of the contemporary university in light of the mass increase in class sizes that has occurred on an international scale. While we may look nostalgically back to a time when lectures numbered a few hundred students and tutorials had as few as ten, massification at undergraduate level is an inescapable fact of academic life today. I argue that this development is an opportunity and a challenge for lecturers and particularly teacher-researchers, who can and have risen to this challenge to strive for better and more creative teaching practices, without compromising the quality of content or delivery. I outline some of the strategies that I have employed with my first year sociology cohort, which numbers over 1,000 students, and the satisfaction and inspiration that comes from successfully reaching out to such a large student population. In addition, I canvas the positive impacts that derive from including students in the course development process, including to the extent that their input contributes to pedagogical research.     

Expansion of Chinese higher education since 1998: Its causes and outcomes

This paper examines an important development in Chinese higher education in the late 1990s and early 2000s, namely, its radical expansion of enrollment starting from 1998. After a brief review of the related literature on educational expansion, the paper analyzes the higher education expansion in China in detail. The paper argues that a variety of factors have led to the enrollment expansion, including the expectation to stimulate domestic consumption and to ease the immediate pressure on the labor market, the high public interest in and demand for higher education in Chinese society, and the political will of the Chinese government to develop higher education. The outcomes of the enrollment expansion are also examined. The paper argues that the expected short term impact of enrollment expansion on Chinese economy is not warranted by reality. Enrollment expansion has also put pressures on Chinese higher education to further reform its structure, curricula, and administration. More importantly, enrollment expansion has brought the issue of equity to the front.     

会计学专业推进课程思政建设的路径与策略

会计学专业与国家经济紧密相联,对高校学生的道德品质提出更高的要求,更需要专业教育与思想政治教育的深度融合,为国家和社会培养优秀的专业人才.通过时事热点引申、嵌入中国传统文化,以及融入企业家精神等方面,实现思想政治元素与专业知识的融合.利用课前案例导入、课中知识传授、课堂作业强化及专业讲座等方法,"润物细无声"地融入思政...