Relationship between teaching methods and understanding of content: a case of universities in Eldoret municipality

Abstract

Teaching methods in growing world universities are often out-of-date as a result, the significance of using the most useful methods of teaching and their relation has become an area of major focus in the recent years. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between teaching methods used in universities and understanding of content in Universities. The study was based on Social Constructivism theory which views each learner as a unique individual with unique needs and backgrounds and therefore requiring different teaching methods to understand the content. The study was carried out in both public and private universities in Eldoret Municipality. Four out of 11 universities were purposively selected for the study, from which 384 students were randomly selected. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. Data was collected through the use of the questionnaire from the students and analysed using descriptive statistics. The results of the study show that lecture, assignment, discussion and individual presentations were the mostly used teaching methods by lecturers. There was no difference in teaching methods used in different universities. There was relationship between teaching methods used and understanding of content in that the following methods enhanced understanding of content namely lecture, individual presentation, assignment, discussion, project, e-learning, demonstration and problem solving method. The study recommends that lecturers should use several methods of teaching in addition to the commonly used methods by lecturers: Role play, brain storming, heuristic methods, seminar and workshop conferences methods should be used in moderation to the one used commonly by lecturers. The results of study would assist the educators in enhancing the current teaching methods so as to make understanding of content more efficient and easy and to make more use of those methods that were not commonly used to be used frequently.