By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
The immediate past Vice Chancellor of the Cross River University of Technology, CRUTECH, Prof. Anthony Owan Enoh, on Wednesday advocated for a pedagogic approach to learning in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
The professor of philosophy of education made the advocacy at the 7th Post Graduate School Lecture of the University of Calabar, Calabar, the Cross River State capital.
Eno, who spoke as a guest lecturer on the topic: ‘Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Research: Misconceptions, Missing Links and Miscarriages,’ said research activities should emerge from the womb of ongoing teaching, adding, “There must be found the productive and creative union of town and gown in teaching by focusing on the active and current.
“The adoption of a pedagogic approach, which involves active learner participation and the emergence of research activities from the womb of ongoing teaching.
“All these are are achievable only through continuous teacher training and the excercise of true academic freedom to both teachers and learners in teaching, learning and research.”
The one time Provost of the Cross River State College of Education, Akamkpa, faulted the rigid and externally imposed curriculum, made worse by an ivory tower mentality.
Opposing the formal method of instruction, aggravated by the banking learning ideology, which is reinforced by a preparationist and dependency frame of mind and inveighed the demand for correspondence in research and research for it’s own sake, unconnected to what is taught or current in society, Prof Eno stressed that those who are schooled in the computer villages and the schools are learning better, getting real employment and making money and our products cannot compete.
He averred that it is only through good teaching that university curricula can be brought down from the ivory tower status and reconnected with the soil from which it springs.
He further insisted that it is through good teaching that the present can be made the focus of learning and avoid the unproductive goal of preparation for an uncertain tomorrow.
The professor of philosophy of education canvases for a university system that can provide effective means for continuous training in pedagogical skills for all university teachers, in the same manner that conference attendance and research activities have been funded through the establishment of a National Academic Staff College of Nigeria, NASCON.
Speaking earlier, before the guest lecturer kick-started the rigorous lecture which lasted for about two and half hours, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Prof. Florence Obi, stated that lectures of that nature would help in sharpening the skills of listeners present, adding that it is good for the system and that it’s the reason that she gave approval.
