Lecturers’ Approaches to Teaching and their Relationship to Conceptions of Good Teaching

Abstract

Previous research has established a close link between students’ conceptions of learning, approaches to study and learning outcomes. Until recently, there have been few studies of lecturers’ approaches to teaching in higher education and their relationship with conceptions of teaching. This study aimed to characterise the alternative approaches to teaching of university lecturers, and to examine the relationship between lecturers’ approaches to teaching and their conceptions of good teaching. The study adopted an open naturalistic approach. Seventeen lecturers in three departments in a university were selected for interview based on their rank, years of teaching and industrial or professional experience. Lecturers were interviewed individually about their conceptions of good teaching, motivational strategies and effective teaching. The interview records were then content analysed by the two researchers of the study. The study found that (a) it was possible to characterise lecturers’ approaches to teaching with one motivation and five strategy dimensions; (b) the conceptions of teaching of the lecturers were best described by two main orientations of transmissive and facilitative teaching; (c) lecturers who conceived teaching as transmitting knowledge were more likely to use content-centred approaches to teaching while those who conceived teaching as facilitative tended to use learning-centred approaches. The study concludes by suggesting that fundamental changes to the quality of teaching and learning are unlikely to happen without changes to lecturers’ conception of teaching.