2.8 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
2.8.5 Lecturer role
The lecturer role refers to the teaching approach that a lecturer uses to communicate the intended curriculum to students. Samuel (2014) as well as Steyn (2010) indicate that the most common role a lecturer plays in the classroom is to teach knowledge to students. However, lecturers are to perform the seven roles that are stipulated in the Norms and Standards for Educators (Gul & Rafique, 2017). In the curriculum the lecturer’s role answers the question
‘How does one facilitate teaching?’ (Gul & Rafique, 2017; Liu, Hu, & Gan, 2013; Thijs & Van den Akker, 2009a; Vandeyar & Killen, 2007). Furthermore, different studies reveal that there are three roles that lecturers are likely to perform in their lectures; the English lecturer may act as an assessor (content-centred teaching), instructor (lecture-centred teaching), and/or as a facilitator (student-centred teaching) (Khoza, 2013a, 2015b; Peterson & Lorimer, 2012;
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Vikash, 2014a). An interpretive case study conducted by Khoza (2013a) on student teachers’
reflections on the new curriculum implementation reveals that the curriculum concentrates too much on a certain period to finish the syllabus. Thus lecturer-centred teaching is mostly adopted. This suggests that the motive of the lecturer in the implementation of curriculum depends in most cases on an individual lecturer’s written strategies (content-centred) to teaching and learning, habitual strategies (lecture-centred) or verbal strategies (student- centred).
Content-based instruction is an approach in language education that is designed to provide second-language students with instruction in content and language (Balbay, Pamuk, Temir, &
Dogan, 2018; Brinton & Snow, 1989; Gul & Rafique, 2017). (Khoza, 2013a, p. 12) states: “If lecturers use time frame to drive their lessons, then they are applying the content-centred approach (for cognitivist)”. This suggests that the content-based approach, also known as content-centred teaching, is the teaching that focuses on covering/finishing the syllabus that is indicated in the planned curriculum in a certain period of time. Thus, in this teaching approach the lecturer plays the role of an assessor. For example, the aim of the English lecturer is to cover all chapters in the textbook without checking the effectiveness of teaching and learning (if students really understand or not). In this approach the lecturer plays the role of an assessor to evaluate the teaching and learning process from time to time, to ensure that the syllabus is covered in the stipulated time. Therefore content-centred teaching may be influenced by a written strategy because the lecturer aims to instruct second-language speakers on content and rules, and such content is specified in the templates and module outlines, to be covered in time.
Furthermore, it may also be related to the decolonisation of knowledge (university curriculum) because knowledge is organised to be covered; thus lecturers can ensure that students learn and understand African philosophies, such as ethno-philosophy, nationalist ideological philosophy, etc. Besides content-centred teaching, lecture-centered teaching is also adopted by English lecturers, as discussed below.
A lecture-centered teaching approach refers to teaching that puts the lecturer’s beliefs and identity at the centre of the teaching and learning process. Maharajh, Davids, and Khoza (2013) define a lecturer-centred approach as a teaching method where the lecturer is actively involved in teaching while the students are passive recipients of content. This is a traditional way of teaching and learning where lecturers play the role of instructors as they are perceived as the sole source of information (Beeman-Cadwallader, Buck, & Trauth-Nare, 2014; Kisaka, 2017;
Priestley, Robinson, & Biesta, 2012). This suggests that students are to take instructions from
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the lecturers without questioning and/or challenging statements made. Killen (1989) as well as Quan-Baffour and Arko-Achemfuor (2009) concur that the lecture-centered role is the complete opposite of a student-centered approach where students are seen as having information that needs to be scaffolded in the classroom through social interactions. We cannot conclude that lecture-centred teaching is bad; however, students should be allowed to participate in their learning.
The lecturer that uses a lecture-centred approach is driven by habitual strategies, because he/she teaches based on personal beliefs and their individual approach to teaching and learning.
Furthermore, since this is a traditional way of teaching it becomes a habit for an individual lecturer to use the one and the same method (instructor). This may be as a result of many factors, such as overcrowded lecture venues where instructors have no choice but to purely lecture the students rather than playing the role of facilitator. Furthermore, the lecture-centred teaching method may be influenced by decolonisation of the mind; for instance, the lecturer may decide to narrate the story of apartheid in South Africa and how the youth of 1976 stood up for change, as a way of transforming young minds to see themselves as capable of changing social issues in the 21st century. Lecturers as facilitators promote student-centred teaching in lecture halls.
Student-centred teaching which relates to lecturers as facilitators refers to the teaching and learning approach that puts students at the centre of the teaching and learning process. Jaramillo (1996, p. 21) states that “Student centered pedagogy involves less moral discourse or talk time on the part of the lecturer and shifts more time, control and responsibility of learning to students”. Both Killen (1989) and Bridgstock (2016) assert that a student-centred approach is when instruction is geared towards giving students more control of activities. This suggests that in student-centred classrooms the lecturer, unlike only giving instructions to students plays the role of facilitator of teaching and learning. In various institutions student-centred teaching is largely recommended to ensure that students take part in the teaching and learning process.
Furthermore, Khoza (2015b) as well as Hoadley and Jansen (2013) report that understanding the aims and objectives of the module helps lecturers understand content to achieve learning outcomes to drive their lessons, and are therefore applying the student-centred approach.
Moreover this approach allows students and facilitators to share the focus, instead of only listening to the lecture. In this way, not only the students learn but also the lecturer learns from his/her students’ prior knowledge as it is shared.
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The student-centred approach may be influenced by verbal strategies because as the lecturer interacts with students in class, being a facilitator of the learning process, he/she would know if students prefer also to be taught African/local literature as they are free to share their ideas.
Through this approach students socially and cognitively construct knowledge on their own.
The student-centred approach (facilitator role) may also be related to the decolonisation of university structures (lecture venues); for instance, an English lecturer may allow students to work in groups, and change class arrangements to allow discussions, through which African values and beliefs are promoted. Assessment is very important in education as discussed below.