Abstract
Current literature on adult education indicates that educators’ teaching orientations are informed by their beliefs, assumptions and views (also called personal teaching theories) about teaching. Educators normally hold two sets of theories, viz; those that they espouse and those that inform their actual behaviour, daily actions and classroom practices. In this study I make a distinction between espoused personal theories and espoused teaching orientations. In the context of the study, I use the latter to refer to methods or approaches educators believe could be used to achieve the objectives of adult education. On the other hand, espoused personal teaching theories refer to the educators’ personal beliefs and assumptions about teaching that influence their teaching orientations. Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) educators are increasingly espousing learning-centred teaching orientations. These are orientations that emphasize cooperative and participative teaching methods or approaches. Though educators generally espouse learning-centred teaching orientations, they in reality use teacher-centred orientations, these being orientations characterized by a one-way transmission of information from the educator to the learner. The educator dominates the learning experience to the detriment of the learners. Espousing a learning-centred orientation to teaching and implementing a teacher-centred one inevitably creates a discrepancy between the educators’ espoused and actual teaching orientations. This study sought to develop a substantive grounded theory to explain this discrepancy. In doing so I used a qualitative approach grounded in a constructivist paradigm, with semi-structured interviews. I analyzed the data through the constant comparative method. I eventually came up with the “Theory of ABET educators’ espoused and actual teaching orientations: explaining the discrepancy between the two.” It stated thus, ABET educators’ interpretation of teaching and learning inform their espoused teaching orientations. However interplay between a number of factors and conditions that include poorly structured lessons, inability to effect learning-centred curriculums and de-motivated learners negate the implementation of the espoused teaching orientations, and re-enforce the use of traditional teaching orientations that are epitomized by information transfer. This creates a discrepancy between the educators’ espoused and actual teaching orientations.
Prof. S.J. Gravett