Abstract

ULEANYA, Chinaza  and  GAMEDE, Bongani Thulani. Correlates of pedagogic malpractices. IJTL [online]. 2018, vol.13, n.2, pp.36-52. ISSN 2519-5670.

This study explored pedagogic malpractices; its causes and effects in two selected sub-Saharan African universities. Mixed method research design was adopted for the study. Data were collected through the use of self-designed questionnaires for the quantitative study and interviews for the qualitative study. Interviews were conducted with eight randomly selected educators, while questionnaires were administered to 480 randomly selected undergraduate university students from two universities, one in Nigeria and the other in South Africa. The quantitative data were analysed through the use of descriptive statistics, while the qualitative data were thematically analysed. The results show that the adoption of a teacher-centred approach by educators to teaching, poor or non-usage of appropriate teaching materials, poor usage of the language of instruction, absenteeism and lateness of educators to class, poor student-educator relationship, assessment and feedback among others, are the various ways by which pedagogic malpractices are perpetrated. In addition, poor staff remuneration, lack of instructional materials, poor working environments, quality of educators, student-educator ratio, workload of educators, were shown as contributing factors of pedagogic malpractices. As a result, poor academic performance, and high drop-out rate are the effects of pedagogic malpractices. The study recommends that university education providers in sub-Saharan Africa should provide educators with a good working environment, recruit more staff, provide staff development opportunities and monitor teaching and learning activities.

Keywords : pedagogic malpractice; higher education; survey; interviews; Nigeria; South Africa.

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