EFFECTIVENESS OF CLASS SIZE IN EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF ACCOUNTING IN JUNIOR SECONDARY
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1Background to the study
Education is the systematic training of the individual in order to bring about positive change in his or her behavior so as to become fulfilled citizen, Angelo (1993). Classrooms are used as appropriate places for seeking and acquiring the education usually from a teacher to a learner. The National Policy on Education NPE (2004) viewed classroom size as the population of a given class in terms of number of accounting students (learners) and recommends an average of twenty(20) as normal class size of accounting students (learners) to one teacher. Three class sizes are normally distinguishable in the educational sector. A large class size falls within 40 and above learners to one teacher. A medium class size is within 30 – 35, while small class size is within 20-25 learners to one teacher (Webb, 1992). Many scholars including Glass and Smith (1982), Molnar (1998), Booze and Maloney (2001) and Shuaibu (2003) all support this classification of class sizes.
Performance, according to Chomsky (1973), is a person‟s actual use of language in producing and understanding sentences in the Accounting language. Saussure (1964) further asserted that there is difference between a person‟s knowledge of the language (competence) and how a person uses this knowledge in producing and understanding sentences (performance). In other words, the difference between linguistic competence and linguistic performance can easily be seen, for example, in the production of long and complex sentences.
The increase in overall enrolment in various institutions in the midst of limited resources from the 1980s and 1990s to this day has translated into more number of classes. The social demand for formal education in the nation‟s development and growth as well as manpower, gave birth to enrolment explosion in institutions of learning. The phenomenon of large classes has become an issue consistently faced by all levels of education (primary, secondary and universities). This simply means large classes would be the future outlook in all classrooms and lecture theatres without corresponding required resources.
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