Strengthening a Learning-Centered College/University Classroom in Ethiopia: Current Wisdom in Teacher Professional Development
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to show increased concern in the new ways of structuring schooling in college/university classroom to address the learning needs of students. Accordingly, the cognitive view of motivation serves as a conceptual framework to understand students’ learning. In the past decade, we have seen the Higher Diploma Programme (HDP), which was developed as a result of the study into the quality and effectiveness of teacher education in Ethiopia focused on teaching techniques in Ethiopian college/university classrooms, a movement that emphasizes active learning, practicum, action research, reflection, and managing learning. Relatively little emphasis was paid on student´s motivational beliefs that are presumed to occur in instructional settings. The reform seemed to reflect time-worn assumptions about learners and learning that may limit teacher´s ways of thinking about the role of the college/university student in the classroom (refer appendix). Fortunately, this state of concern is very much similar with the state of classroom learning in the early 1980s. This intensive focus on teaching techniques, but largely ignoring students’ motivational beliefs that occur in instructional settings may lead teachers to the conclusion that a focus merely on instruction is one-sided. Hence, efforts must be made to strengthen a more balanced discourse that emphasizes the subtle nuances and complexities of learning within any discussion of teaching. One change that could begin to maximize students` learning would strengthen “learning-centered" classroom. To strengthen “learning-centered†classroom the theoretical review focuses on how students’ motivational beliefs and teachers’ behavior/instructional factors influence students’ motivation to learn. The review concluded that a learning-centered perspective regards the classroom as a dynamic setting where pedagogical practices and learners’ motivational beliefs meet and where the quality of this interaction influences the learning needs of students that are presumed to occur in college classrooms. Presumably if the next generation of teachers designed their classroom environments to be in accord with these recommendations, future generations of university/college students would be much more motivated than the current one. Hence to achieve this expectation, a continuous professional development programme for college/university teachers which focuses on student motivational beliefs is urgently needed. Action to strengthened learning-centred classroom is vital to improve the quality of teacher professional development in Ethiopia. Finally, the review has implication concerns voiced the current wisdom about teacher professional development in Ethiopia.References
Adane T. (2000). Bahir Dar Teachers College Instructors Involvement in Educational Research: Problems, Efforts, and Prospects, In Amare Asgedom, Derebssa Dufera, and Zenbe Baraki (Eds.), Current Issues of Educational Research in Ethiopia: Proceedings of National Conference Held in Nazareth, March 10-11,2000. Institute of Educational Research, Addis Ababa University, pp, 141-159.
Bahiru, Z. (1991). A History of modern Ethiopia 1855-1974. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman.
Baron, R. (1992). Psychology (2 nd Ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Barr, B., & Tagg, J. (1995). From teaching to learning: A new paradigm for undergraduate education. Change, 27(6), 12-25.
Bransford, J., Brown, A., & Cocking, R. (1999). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Brophy, J., & Good, T. (1970). Teachers’ communication of differential expectations for children’s classroom performance: Some behavioral data. Journal of Educational Psychology, 61(5), 365-374.
Brown, A., Bransford, J., Ferrara, R., & Campione, J. (1983). Learning, remembering, and understanding, in J. Flavell & E. Markman (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Cognitive development (4 th ed.), pp. 77-166, New York: Wiley.
Connell, J. (1985). A new multidimensional measure of children’s perceptions of control. Child Development, 56, 1018–1041.
Dawit, M. & Alemayhu, B. (2001). Pre-service teachers’ perception towards professional courses and the efficacy of subject methodology course in developing pedagogical content knowledge. The Ethiopian Journal of Education, XXII(1), 1-32.
Dembo, M. (1994). Applying Educational Psychology (5 th Ed.). New York: Longman Publishing Group.
Eggen,P., & Kauchak, D.(1997). Educational psychology: Windows on classroom (3rd Ed.). NJ: Upper Saddle River
Elliott, N., Thomas, R., Joan, L., & John, F. (2000). Educational Psychology: Effective teaching, effective learning (3 rd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Fisher, R., & David, S. (1998). The development priorities of Ethiopian higher education teachers. Journal of In-service Education, 24(2), 307 - 315
Freire, P., & Faundez, A. (1989). Learning to question. New York: Continuum.
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind. New York: Basic Books.
Good, T., & Brophy, J. (1978). Looking in classrooms (2 nd ed.) New York: Harper and Row.
Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency (HERQA, 2007). Presentations from the HERQA National Conference: Advancing Higher Education in Ethiopia (quality assurance and accreditation of postgraduate programmes held on 7 June 2006). HERQA Publications Series-017.
Jaworski, B. (1994). Investigating mathematics teaching: A constructivist enquiry. London: Falmer Press.
Kolb, D. (1981). Learning styles and disciplinary differences in the modern American college. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lefcourt, H. (1976). Locus of control: Current trends in theory research. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Manning M., & Baruth, L. (1996). Multicultural education of children and adolescents. Needham Heights: Allyn and Bacon.
Ministry of Education. (MoE, 2003a). Teacher Education System Overhaul. Addis Ababa: Author
Ministry of Education. (2003b). Higher Diploma Programme for Teacher Educators Handbook. Addis Ababa: Author
Ministry of Education. (2008). Higher Diploma Programme for Teacher Educators Handbook. Addis Ababa: Author
Ministry of Education. (2011). Higher Diploma Programme for Teacher Educators Handbook. Addis Ababa: Author
Negash T. (1990). The crisis of Ethiopian education: Some implications for nation building. Upsala: Upsala University.
Nieto, S. (1996). Affirming Diversity. New York: Longman.
Oxford, R.L., & Ehrman, M. E. (1993). Second language research on individual differences. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 13, 188-205.
Pankhurst, R. (1990). A social history of Ethiopia. Addis Ababa University: Institute of Ethiopian Studies.
Perry, R. (1991). Perceived control in college students: Implications for instruction in higher education. In J. Smart (Ed.), Higher education: Handbook of theory and research (Vol. 7, pp. 1–56).
Perry, R., & Dickens, W. (1988). Perceived control and instruction in the college classroom: Some implications for student achievement. Research in Higher Education, 27(4), 291–310.
Perry, R., & Magnusson, J. (1989). Causal attributions and perceived performance: Consequences for college students’ achievement and perceived control in different instructional conditions. Journal of Educational Psychology, 81(2), 164–172.
Perry, P., & Penner, K. (1990). Enhancing academic achievement in college students through attribution retraining and instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(2), 262– 271.
Petri, H. (1991). Motivation theory and research. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Pintrich, P. (1999). The role of motivation in promoting and sustaining self-regulated learning. International Journal of Educational Research, 31(6), 459–470.
Pintrich, P. (2000). Multiple goals, multiple pathways: The role of goal orientation in learning and achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(3), 544-555.
Pintrich, P., & DeGroot, E. (1990). Motivational and self-regulated learning components of classroom academic performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(1), 33– 40.
Poluha, E. (2004). The power of continuity: Ethiopia in the eyes of its children. Sweden: Nordiska Afrika Institute.
Pressely, M., & McCormic, C. (1995). Advanced educational psychology: For educators, researchers and policy makers. New York: HarperCollins College Publishers.
Reda, D. (2001). Conception of constructivists teaching approaches in higher education institutions: A case study. Flambeau, 9(1), 57-63
Reda, D. (2008). The mediating roles of teacher behavior and student academic behaviors in explaining relations between teacher expectations and academic performance. The Ethiopian Journal of Education, 28(2), 45-72.
Reda, D. (2015). Competency-based secondary teacher education program in Ethiopia: Potential opportunities and obstacles. Bahir Dar Journal of Education, 15(1), 41-64.
Rotter, J. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control reinforcement. Psychological Monographs, 80(1), 1–28.
Shiraev, E., & Levy, D. (2007). Cross-Cultural Psychology: Critical thinking and contemporary applications (3 rd Ed.). Boston: Pearson Education Inc.
Teshome, W. (1990). The development of higher education and social change. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.
Teshome, Y. (2007). The Ethiopian higher education: Creating space for reform. Addis Ababa: St Mary’s University College Printing Press.
Ugurogulu, M., & Walber, H. (1979). Motivational and achievement: A quantitative synthesis. American Educational Research Journal, 16(4), 375-389.
Veenman, S. (1984). Perceived problems of beginning teachers. Review of Educational Research, 54(2), 143-178.
Veroff, J., & Veroff, J. B. (1980). Social incentives: A life-span developmental approach. New York: Academic Press Inc.
Wang, M,. Haertel, G., & Walberg, H. (1993).Toward a knowledge base for school learning. Review of Educational Research, 63(2), 249-294.
Weiner, B. (1990). History of motivational research in education. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(4), 616-622.
Weiner, B. (1992). Attribution Theories of Human Motivation: Metaphors, Theories, and Research. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
