Relationship between lecturers' professional competence, teaching environment and classroom teaching practices at Al-Baha University

Abstract

University lecturers are both educators and facilitators to university students to enhance the dynamics and effectiveness of the educational process. Lecturers’ professional competence and their teaching environments are two factors that influence the students’ performance through effective classroom teaching practice. However, in a university the concept of classroom teaching practices is easily overlooked as it is generally believed that the university academics have acquired professional competence and the teaching environment is judged to be conducive. Recent research indicated that university lecturers lack adequate competencies in managing the classrooms, and this issue has not been adequately addressed. Thus, the main objective of this study is to examine the extent to which professional competence and teaching environment determine the classroom teaching practice among lecturers. A mixed method design was employed to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data using questionnaire were gathered from 800 lecturers while seven lecturers were interviewed for qualitative information at Al-Baha University, Saudi Arabia. Quantitative data were analysed using mean, percentage, Pearson correlation, one way Anova and multiple regressions. Meanwhile, qualitative data were analysed thematically to support quantitative findings. The results from the analyses confirmed that factors concerning human, teaching, technology, evaluation, and cultural competencies were from the professional competence aspect. On the other hand, control of teaching, size of classroom, support from faculty and students’ characteristics were from the lecturers’ teaching environment component which are significant determinants of the classroom teaching practice among lecturers of this university. Therefore, the study concludes that university students’ performance would be enhanced if the competencies of lecturers are improved with the provision of a conducive classroom teaching environment. Hence, it is recommended that the authorities in the university should pay more attention to these factors to improve lecturers’ classroom teaching practices aimed towards effective management of classroom activities.