EDUCATORS’ CLASSROOM EXPERIENCES WITH VARIATION OF LEARNING THEORY

Classroom practitioners are expected to facilitate effective learning under the outcome-based education in South Africa. During this facilitation process, educators are required to become more resourceful in terms of their learning and teaching strategies. This article is based on a case study within the phenomenographic paradigm, of grade nine educators and learners in four schools in the North West Province of South Africa, on specific economics topic relating to the understanding of the value or price determination of the South Africa Rand on the foreign exchange market. The article is divided into three parts. Firstly, the concepts of phenomenography and variation theory of learning are explored and constituted as the conceptual framework for the study. The second part deals with educators' experiences with the variation theory as a classroom resource for learning. The last section of the article deals with the impact of educators' classroom experiences with the variation theory on learners' quantitative and qualitative learning outcomes. The results showed an improvement in the learners' understanding of the economics topic studied.