The training and development of lecturers within the framework of the relevant Acts on higher education

Abstract

The education dispensation in South Africa underwent tremendous changes during the last decade of the twentieth-century and in the early years of the new millennium. Many lecturers are not necessarily equipped to face all the challenges that are a result of the changes. Since it is the vision of the new government to have a `rational, seamless Higher Education system that will embrace the intellectual and professional challenges facing South Africans in the 21st century' (Department of Education 2003, iii), the researcher became involved and conducted this study in a higher education institution. The relevant Acts in the higher education environment served as framework to table a training model for newly appointed lecturers. Development research was used as method, and a heuristic statement formulated and tested. The instructional design components based on an Input ? Process ? Output matrix was applied, and a step-by-step approach followed to design the training model and simultaneously test the implementation of the programme. The proposed training programme for the holistic development of lecturers in a higher education institution is based on past experience, relevant in the current situation, but also future-orientated. It is practical, effective and applicable in the higher education sector, and the validity lies in the fact that it is goal-orientated, based on state of the art knowledge, relevant and meaningful. It reflects the reality in which the lecturers are expected to perform and considers their emotional and instinctive feelings. It is therefore tabled as a well-researched and properly instituted model.

South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 20(1) 2006: 70-86