Sustaining Quality Higher Education: issues in teaching and learning today

Abstract

The norms for higher education teaching are well established. However, the academic landscape today is shrouded in change—with increasingly more faculty accountability for addressing the diverse backgrounds and needs of learners; complying with government-mandated curriculum revisions; and responding to pressures and opportunities from external stakeholders for program currency and graduate preparedness for the labour market. As these pervasive and persistent changes descend on education, reliance on standard classroom practices as the magic ingredients for maintaining excellence in teaching and learning is questionable. For instance, a diagnostic assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of our students today reveals classrooms full of very different personalities, with very different needs and varying abilities. Therefore, teachers need a varied arsenal to reach the diverse needs of today’s students as advised by Munro C.R, (2005) that "how we learn and what we learn must shift as the context for learning changes." Specific teaching strategies and tools, thus, can help all students perform well. Carefully designed student-centered and self-reflective teaching ensures that we are serving students of diverse abilities. The paper identifies a few important strategies which can impact on teaching and learning; and further analyzes how these can help in the sustenance of quality higher education.