A Socio-Psychological Approach to the Analysis of Teaching Styles and Learning in Adult Education Programmes in the Lagos Metropolis

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Date
1988-06
Authors
Ibeh, A.E
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Lagos
Abstract
The study investigated the extent to which a behavioural theory based on Getzels and Cuba's socio-psychological model of teaching style could help us understand what goes on in adult education programmes in the Lagos metropolis. In this connection, the study sought to find out whether instructional environments designed for adult learners were based on nomothetic dimension of activity, idiographic dimension of activity, or transactional dimension of teaching. In addition, the study investigated the considerations of factors that went into the selection of various styles of teaching employed by the instructors. The study made use of the ex-post facto research design. A total of two hundred instructors and five hundred students were selected through various sampling procedures (stratified, systematic and random sampling) from four types of adult education programmes that purely typify classroom instructional process. In all, forty adult education centres comprising vocational, GCE remedial/continuing education, adult literacy and management/manpower development types of programmes were used for the study. The main instrument for the collection of data was the questionnaire. There were two sets of questionnaire (Instructor Questionnaire and Student Questionnaire) which respectively sought the instructors' and students; perception in the four types of adult education programmes studied. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, t-test, chi-square analysis, analysis of variance and multiple regression analysis. Based on the analysis of the data, the study revealed among other things that: (1) There were significant relationships between instructor's age and experience and the three dimension of teaching style namely nomothetic, idiographic, and transactional teaching styles. (2) There was no relationship between instructors sex and any of the three dimensions of teaching styles. (3) Instructor's age, sex, marital status, religion, experience in formal education, and experience in formal education programmes when taken together could effectively predict instructor's transactional teaching style for management/manpower development instructors. (4) Out of the six instructor characteristics used for prediction, only age, marital status and experience in adult education programmes of management/manpower development instructors made the most significant contribution to the prediction of transactional teaching style. (5) The type of teaching an instructor employed was significantly influenced by the motives he had for teaching, the objectives he sets out to achieve, and his perception of the learner's needs. (6) Preference for nomothetic dimension of teaching style was not significantly different in the four adult education programmes studied. (7) Preference for idiographic and transactional teaching styles was significantly different across the four adult education programmes. An analysis of the findings in this study revealed that the determination of appropriate instructional environment or teaching behaviour in any adult education programme was largely influenced by the instructor's level of education, experience, age, professional training, socio-cultural milieu of the teaching-learning situation, the needs of the learner and the objectives and motives the instructor has for teaching. In the light of the above and the findings of this study, it was suggested that a regular evaluation of the classroom procedures and activities of adult education programmes should be undertaken with a view to monitoring: (1) the academic and professional competence of the instructors of all categories of adult education programme, (2) the kind of interaction that goes on in the classrooms, and (3) the strategies for teaching the adults as contrasted to the teaching of children. To this end, courses on general adult education and in particular, special courses on the procedures and methods of adult teaching should be provided not only to the officials of the ministry charged with supervision, but also to those instructors who had no previous knowledge of the teaching of adults.
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Keywords
Teaching and Learning , Adult Education , Socio-psychological model , Behavioural Theory
Citation
Ibeh, A.E (1988) A Socio-Psychological Approach to the Analysis of Teaching Styles and Learning in Adult Education Programmes in the Lagos Metropolis. University of Lagos School of Postgraduate Studies Phd Thesis and Dissertation Abstracts. 315p.