Instructor- Learner Ratio and Its Implications on Creative Design Skills Acquisition in Higher Education

Abstract

The enormity of teacher-learner ratio in our classrooms today is overwhelming. Teachers always face large class sizes and try everything in their professional capabilities to achieve results. This has its own academic implications on students’ achievement especially in practical courses. Having examined the instructional situations in five selected classes in three Technical Universities in Ghana, this paper seeks to present findings based on problems associated with large class sizes and how they affect students’ skills acquisition and course satisfaction. The study adopted the mixed method which combined the qualitative and quantitative approaches. After collecting enough data from randomly selected 225respondents made of students, lecturers and deans, it was discovered that there are significant differences between large and small class sizes with respect to students’ skills acquisition. It was also evident that large class sizes inhibits students’ skills acquisition and academic achievement primarily because teachers tend to employ instructional approaches that are convenient to them. While students in small classes exhibited high skills proficiencies which reflected in the grades they obtained and had expressed high level of course satisfaction, students in the large classes demonstrated less skills acquisition and course satisfaction. It was discovered that class size determined frequency of assessment and feedback to students as well as  the quality of instructors’ attention and interaction with. The study recommended infrastructural development and the need to enhance the human resource capacity in our Technical Universities.

Keywords: Teacher-learner ratio, Teacher-student interaction, Assessment and feedback, Students’ satisfaction level.