Abstract:
In Zimbabwe, universities have established Teaching and Learning Centres to address issues of teaching
quality which have become a source of concern. However, programmes designed and developed in these
centres have experienced limited uptake from members of faculty thereby threatening the quality of
teaching and learning. This study aims to explore the reasons for this low uptake of academic professional
developed programmes from the lived experiences of lecturers. The study was framed by two theories,
namely constructivism and adult learning theory. In terms of methodology, the qualitative case research
approaches were used to collect data through open-ended semi-structured interviews. The population of
the study was lecturers in institutions of higher learning from which 20 lecturers were purposely sampled
from two conveniently sampled case study institutions. For data analysis, identification of themes was
done through transcription and thematical analysis of data. The study revealed that departmental
workloads, time, and pressure to do research made lecturers not to prioritize training in academic
professional development. It also came out that lecturers were not consulted in the development of
training programmes and that workshops clashed with scheduled academic commitments of lecturers. It
was recommended that needs analysis of lecturers should be conducted to inform the workshop
programmes as well as having policies that are clear on workload balance and time for support staff
development.
Description:
Journal article published African Perspectives of Research in Teaching and Learning Journal
Issue 4, Volume 8, 2024
