Instructors’ Techno-pedagogical Predisposition and Quality Higher Education in Cameroon.

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue II, February 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

Instructors’ Techno-pedagogical Predisposition and Quality Higher Education in Cameroon.

By:
Apongnde Pasker (Ph.D.)
Faculty of Education, University of Yaounde I (Cameroon)

ABSTRACT
This study seeks to illustrate the influence that instructors’ techno-pedagogical predisposition exerts on the ongoing quest for quality higher education in Cameroon. It stems from the premise that despite the efforts deployed for modern technologies to be adequately integrated, and effectively used in the pedagogical process within the higher education arena, the teaching staff is not yet aligning in great numbers with this new dawn. The question that is on every lip is, why instructors’ apathy on the adoption of technological innovations in the pedagogical process? The blame from literature review is largely laid on access to technological devices, and users’ technological skills. This study is a correlational survey involving the random sampling technique, based on Krejcie, and Morgan’s (1970) model for the selection of 213 instructors from five higher educational institutions in Cameroon. Data were collected via questionnaire administration, and analysis / interpretations were done with the help of SPSS according to Spearman’s Correlation Index. Findings show that instructors’ access to techno-pedagogical devices does not significantly affect the quality of higher education whereas their training and initiatives in techno-pedagogy have a significant influence on the quality of higher education in Cameroon. This is illustrated in the overall P-value of ˂0.05 obtained; hence, the need for remedial measures to be taken.
Keywords: Instructor, Techno-pedagogy, Predisposition, Quality, and Higher education.
I. INTRODUCTION
Ensuring quality higher education is the foundation for improving people’s lives, and sustainable development. Quality improvement and assurance are said to be among the most complicated problems faced by higher education because their impact goes on almost every aspect of the system. For the past decades, the issue of quality higher education has been more and more linked to the use of modern technologies in the teaching-learning process. This explains why the World Declaration on Education for All (UNESCO, 2000) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, 2015) inter-alia were very emphatic about the necessity of providing education for all children, youth, and adults responsive to their needs, and relevant to their lives. This paved the way for the issue of quality, expressed in terms of needs-based criteria.
Technology can be defined as the study of tools, machines, procedures, and methods applied in diverse artistic and industrial branches or a set of coherent knowledge, and practices in a given domain that is based on scientific principles (Apongnde, 2019b). Pedagogy on its part is any activity that is deployed by a person to develop precise learning in an individual (Raynal & Rieunier, 1997). It can also be considered as a discipline that deals with the theory, and practice of teaching, and how these influence students’ learning. Techno-pedagogy as used in this context is the act of integrating technology in the process of knowledge transmission while techno-pedagogical predisposition has to do with users’ tendency to adopt innovative techniques in the teaching-learning process. Quality is compliance with standards (Sefer, & al., 2017) and quality higher education can be referred to education delivered at the tertiary level that meets expected and generally acceptable standards. In other words, it is education that is not acquired for its sake, but for the purpose which it is intended in terms of accreditation, productivity, employability, and usefulness to the society.
Even though quality in higher education and determining the way to measure it is not an easy task (Parri, 2006), it is worthwhile pointing out that every higher educational institution is only as good as the predilection of its teaching staff to adopt the techno-pedagogical culture. It is true that we cannot yet completely do away with onsite in favour of online course delivery in the context of Cameroon; but traditional pedagogy that is technologically supported is certainly a possibility. A glance at the education sector in Cameroon in general, and higher institutions of learning in particular however leaves one with the impression that someone somewhere is not doing his/her job the way it is supposed to be done. In fact, for the past decades, and even nowadays with the advent of the Corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic with its consequential impact on onsite course delivery, especially on tertiary education in Cameroon, the teaching staff of these institutions that are renowned for grappling with a great populace in terms of the student population is still very much attached to the use of traditional methods of knowledge transmission. Very few instructors care about the necessity to effectively use technological innovations of the hour in the pedagogical process. This has been going on, and is still a routine with most instructors.

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