The Impacts and Challenges of Pedagogical Skills Improvement Program at Adama Science and Technology University

Abstract

This research report is about the impact of university teachers' pedagogical skills training on approaches to teaching measured by teaching components in ASTU. Descriptive survey research design was employed. The participants were 111 teachers attended Pedagogical Skills Improvement on seven modules for 106hrs in the year 2009-2013.Stratified sampling techniques were employed to select participants. The teachers were from six schools that were divided into five groups depending on the amount of pedagogical training they had. The instrument of data collection was questionnaire and checklists. Mixed research approach was employed to analyses of the data. The results indicated that pedagogical skills training had an effect on their teaching skills in using lesson planning, active learning, and continuous assessment and classroom management. The teachers mentioned not only positive effects of pedagogical training on their teaching but also informed some difficulties like redundancy of concepts, activities, examples; modules are not to the standard, long duration of the training and large class size, lack of material and facilities, lack of motivation, inability to implement fully what they have acquired from the training.

Academic Staff Development as an Enabler to Good Teaching Practices at a Higher Education Institution in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

“…HE institutions have introduced policies and strategies like short courses in teaching as well as sending their academics to other HEIs to register and study HE teaching qualifications like PGDip (Higher Education) to close the PCK gap. Negassa and Engdasew (2017) in their own evaluative study of a pedagogical skills training for teachers in Adama Science and Technology University, Ethiopia, also reported positive effects on the participants' teaching skills in using lesson planning, active learning, continuous assessment and classroom management.…”

“…Although training of lecturers started in 1980s, research generally shows that gaps in pedagogical training still exist among teachers in colleges and universities (Biku, Demas, Woldehawariat, Getahun, & Mekonnen, 2018;Negassa & Engdasew, 2017;Tsegay, Zegergish, & Ashraf, 2018). Efforts at addressing these gaps in ability to exhibit pedagogical skills in instructional delivery have continued to receive attention as various HEIs and governments of some countries like South Africa through CHE guidelines.…”

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“…Traditional methods of instruction are taking a back seat, and various forms of active learning are gaining increasing popularity, in particular in the field of psychological services [19,20]. As a rule, classes are referred to as a form of active learning that aims to create the interpersonal component of professional activity through the development of a psychodynamic and professional environment, which determines further development of the individual by means of integration and immersion [21]. The most popular form of active learning is training.…”

Challenges in the evaluation process of training and development programmes in public universities in Saudi Arabian higher education

“…Higher Education (HE) plays a significant role in driving social and economic progress in an increasingly globalised, competitive world. In knowledge-based economies, universities serve as the engines of prosperity expansion and social transformation, helping sustainable economic growth (Negassa and Engdasew, 2017; Širá et al. , 2020).…”