To What Extent Do Classroom Teachers Benefit from Academic Research Outputs from Higher Institutions in Africa?Implications for Quality Teacher Education Programmes

摘要

Quality of teaching in African schools is expected to be enhanced by the quality of researches from faculties in various universities all over the continent. The essence of academic research is to make contribution to educational knowledge that informs school reform efforts and professional development of teachers. Every year tons and tons of research are carried out in these universities, a majority of which outcomes are published in academic journals and other outlets. However, academic journals still remain the most powerful and reliable outlet for publishing research outcomes. Expectedly, findings from these researches are to influence classroom practices of school teachers (both primary and secondary). This study, therefore reports a study that determined the extent to which primary school teachers in Botswana benefit from academic research outputs, especially those published in journals. Two hundred primary and junior secondary schools teachers constitute the sample for the study. They were randomly selected from a group of in-service teachers who are on their bachelor of education degree programme in the University of Botswana. A questionnaire targeted `Teachers? Perceptions of Benefits Derived from Academic Journals` with a reliability coefficient of 0.96 using Cronbach alpha constituted the only instrument used for data collection. Five research questions were raised and answered in the study. Major findings include: A very low percentage of teachers ever consulted a journal in solving academic problems (less than 50% of the sample), no gender difference in the perceptions of teachers of the usefulness of academic journals, also the level of teaching (i.e., primary or secondary had no influence on the sample perceptions. The implications of the findings were discussed, especially as it affects quality of teachers in Botswana specifically and Africa in general. The findings have implications for re-orienting our teacher education programmes to cater for the research phobia of school teachers in Africa.