Abstract
According to Nelson Mandela (1990) “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. This statement implies that education is very important, not only to the people who are to be educated, but to the development of a country. Education is highly important in attaining a country’s developmental goals, as this is achieved through skilled workforce and an efficient educational system. A progressive higher educational system of a country will have skilled Lecturers, whose pedagogical skills would improve the quality of the learners, and where graduates are prepared for the world of work.
This research is designed to investigate Early Career Lecturers’ perception of the effectiveness of training and development on delivering the professional pedagogical demands of their role. This research is focused on federal government universities in the south-west part of Nigeria. In line with this, two universities have been chosen based on selected criteria to participate in this study. These two universities are university of Ibadan, and university of Lagos, Nigeria.
The research objectives will be highlighted to give a precise direction to a credible conclusion. Literature from related and previous research studies regarding training and development of Lecturers, especially as it impacts their pedagogical skills will be reviewed. This is to explore and reveal that the development of Lecturers has generated assumptions among scholars and has been discussed extensively.
In achieving the aim of this research, a suitable methodology has been designed for the study, which includes the use of semi-structured questionnaire, which is a technique of qualitative research design in the collection of primary data from respondents. The set of respondents consist of Early Career Lecturers, Senior staff responsible for academic staff development and Human Resource/T&D personnel of the case study universities, who will be able to proffer answers to the research questions.
This study will also introduce the UK Professional Standard Framework (UKPSF) to the respondents. This is to gather their thoughts regarding the possibility of adopting same for Nigerian universities, to aid the initial and continuous development of Lecturers in supporting students’ learning.