UNIVERSITY lecturers do not know how to teach, University of the Free State vice-chancellor Jonathan Jansen told hundreds of lecturers yesterday at a higher education conference at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
Jansen was delivering a keynote address on the demise of the public schooling system where students go through university without any real learning.
The columnist and author said university lecturers worried more about getting through the syllabus than actually teaching students.
"Students go to university not only to get training in the fields, but to broaden their minds. Yet the curriculum has become so narrow and focuses too much on the technical side."
Jansen said examples of poor education practices included the fact that students pass modules without attending classes and that many acquire a Bachelor of Arts degree without having read a book from beginning to end.
"If, as a lecturer, your students can pass your module from a friend's notes, you have failed your students in teaching," he said.
"Teaching in higher education has become so pessimistic because lecturers are no longer excited about teaching."
UFS introduced a compulsory curriculum, UFS 101, for first year students to engage on five major questions drawn from history, astronomy, law, nanotechnology and theology.
'Lecturers do not know how to teach' - Prof
UNIVERSITY lecturers do not know how to teach, University of the Free State vice-chancellor Jonathan Jansen told hundreds of lecturers yesterday at a higher education conference at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
Jansen was delivering a keynote address on the demise of the public schooling system where students go through university without any real learning.
The columnist and author said university lecturers worried more about getting through the syllabus than actually teaching students.
"Students go to university not only to get training in the fields, but to broaden their minds. Yet the curriculum has become so narrow and focuses too much on the technical side."
Jansen said examples of poor education practices included the fact that students pass modules without attending classes and that many acquire a Bachelor of Arts degree without having read a book from beginning to end.
"If, as a lecturer, your students can pass your module from a friend's notes, you have failed your students in teaching," he said.
"Teaching in higher education has become so pessimistic because lecturers are no longer excited about teaching."
UFS introduced a compulsory curriculum, UFS 101, for first year students to engage on five major questions drawn from history, astronomy, law, nanotechnology and theology.
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