Didactic Competencies among Teaching Staff of Universities in Kenya

Abstract

The aim of this study was to establish the levels and types of didactic competencies that exist among teaching staff in universities in Kenya, giving recognition to curriculum development, pedagogical attributes and quality assurance competencies. The study was carried out in two phases among two samples of the teaching staff population. The first sample consisted of 229 randomly sampled teaching staff from three public chartered universities in Kenya while the second sample consisted of 46 teaching staff who had been engaged in quality assurance activities of the university education national quality assurance agency in Kenya.  The methodology entailed analyzing the curriculum vitae of the first sample for purposes of determining the teaching staff's consideration of didactic competencies as an achievement area in their teaching profession and thereafter analyzing the responses of the second sample to an open-ended questionnaire in order to determine the teaching staff's acquired and needed didactic competencies. The results revealed that a low percentage of teaching staff (37.1%) considered didactic competencies as an achievement area in the teaching profession. On the other hand, didactic competencies in pedagogical attributes were highly regarded as compared to those in curriculum development and quality assurance. There was need for advocacy and sensitization of teaching staff and university management on the importance of the three types of didactic competencies in the enhancement of the quality of teaching and learning at the university. In addition, taking cognizance of the dynamism in education, teaching staff needed to keep abreast with the paradigm shifts through regular training and retraining on the various types of didactic competency areas.