“Lecturenting” and Influencing Behavior of University Students
Peter E Egielewa1, Blessed F Ngonso1 and Giuseppe T Cirella2*
1Department of Mass Communication, Edo State University Uzairue, Edo State, Nigeria
2Faculty of Economics, University of Gdansk, Poland
Submission: July 15, 2024;Published: August 05, 2024
*Corresponding author: Giuseppe T Cirella, Faculty of Economics, University of Gdansk, Poland. Email: gt.cirella@ug.edu.pl
How to cite this article: Egielewa P E, Ngonso B F, Cirella G T. “Lecturenting” and Influencing Behavior of University Students. Open Access J Educ & Lang Stud. 2024; 2(2): 555583. DOI:10.19080/OAJELS.2024.02.555583.
Abstract
This study looks at the degree to which lecturers and students of higher institutions in Nigeria perceive the role of lecturers doubling as parents under the term lecturenting. Lecturenting is a coinage used to refer to a person who performs the dual roles of lecturing and parenting students of higher institutions. The study is based on Professor Obiora Ike’s ideology of communication of values, normally applicable to traditional homes. The research used a quantitative survey of 266 undergraduates and 109 lecturers, totaling 375 respondents from two purposively selected higher institutions in Nigeria. A questionnaire with a set of nine semi-structured questions was used to obtain data from the students during the school semesters between July 15 and August 31, 2022. The study was based on value theory. Findings indicate that lecturers frequently engage in lecturenting helped improve the academic performance of students but showed that students did not want always to desire it. The study concludes that the more lecturers engage in lecturenting, the more positive impact it will have on their students. The practice, in general, is common in developing countries, such as Nigeria, and should be perceived as a positive approach for higher education institutions.
Keywords: Lecturing; Parenting; Professor Obiora Ike; Value Communication; Value Theory
Introduction
Lecturers play important roles in the lives of their students, in addition to their normal duties of teaching and researching. These duties involve ensuring the active participation of their students, challenging them to focus on their lectures and ensuring discipline in the classroom [1,2]. Koko [3] has classified lecturers’ roles into three, namely: (1) director of learning: teachers must have a thorough understanding of the nature and principles of learning, effective teaching methods, curriculum development, testing techniques, and ability to measure learning outcomes (2) counsellor and confidant: teachers must understand the psychology of learners and play parental roles to motivate learners to participate in learning, and (3) role model: teachers should be disciplined and be good role models worthy of emulation to the extent that their good character should rub off on their learners. Azizah (2015) further expanded these to six categories, namely: information provider, role model, facilitator, assessor, planner, and resource developer. Indeed, studies have shown that students are motivated if they are significantly influenced by a supportive network of relationships which include their peers, students, and lecturers alike [4].
In addition to the normal responsibilities of teaching students, lecturers are often confronted with other challenges which arise from the behavior of students which they must deal with appropriately. Such students may exhibit behavioral problems such as bullying, fighting, teasing, stealing, truancy, disobedience and insubordination, lying, cheating, lateness, rudeness, destructiveness, and drug or alcohol addiction [3]. A study by Allagoa [3] of lecturers at Rivers State University, Nigeria, showed that lecturers were not interested in issues of students’ behavior relating to extra-curricular activities, students’ accommodation, students’ facility usage, etc. and teachers do not sanction recalcitrant behaviors of students and rather concentrate on their teaching roles. Lecturers, many of whom are also parents, end up trying to play the role of parents while also discharging their traditional roles of lecturing [5]. Combining both roles can be termed lecturenting, which in this context is used to represent a person who tries to combine both lecturing in a higher institution and parenting roles for their students. Some studies have suggested counselling by lecturers yields a more positive outcome in the life of their students than when professional counsellors undertake this task [4]. This study, therefore, seeks to interrogate lecturers and students of Nigerian higher institutions, on how they perceive lecturenting. It seeks to address the following research questions:
Research question 1: How frequently do lecturers in Nigeria engage in lecturenting?
Research question 2: To what degree do lecturers engage in lecturenting?
Research question 3: To what extent do students perceive lecturenting in their lecturers?
Research question 4: In what ways has lecturenting impacted students?
To properly carry out this study, the following two hypotheses will be tested.
Hypothesis 1: There is no significant relationship between the frequency of lecturenting and lecturers’ perception of the lecturenting impact on students.
Hypothesis 2: There is no significant relationship between lecturenting and undergraduates’ positive behavioral change.
Literature review
“Lecturenting”
Lecturenting as a term does not exist in any known literature. However, the idea of lecturenting has been the subject of several types of research. Some lecturers, particularly those who are parents, see themselves also as parents while at the same time doing the job of being lecturers. Consequently, the natural tendency of a parent to applaud a good action or to correct the wrongdoing of their children remains an intrinsic part of such lectures. Thus, many lecturers carry out the dual role of lecturing and parenting their students during and outside lecture periods. They feel compelled to go the extra mile to engage in the parenting of their students and some lecturers even consider themselves the ‘de facto’ parents of their students while they are on campus. Thus, the coinage of the word “lecturenting” (i.e., lecturing plus parenting). Specifically, lecturers do not only see themselves as helping students to learn but also helping them, as their guardians, to adapt to the wider world outside the campus [3,6]. Therefore, lecturers spend time counselling students in improving their academic performance and developing a positive attitude to life such as imbibing values such as hard work, respect, honesty, commitment, focus, dedication, contentment, and eschewing negative behaviors such as fighting, stealing, cheating, drug addictions, immorality, laziness, bullying, lateness, disobedience, insubordination, amongst others [5-7].
Professor Obiora Ike and value communication
Professor Obiora Ike has dealt extensively with ethical issues and how they are communicated from the perspective of leadership. Under the Latin dictum “non scholae, sed vitae discendum est” (i.e., we must learn not for school but life), Ike [8] has tried to x-ray what authentic leadership should be in the global context and what is required to achieve this. Ike [8] has argued that the core goal of education is the communication of truth which is the foundation on which all other ethical values are built, necessary, and pivotal in addressing ethical challenges in business, human rights education, students’ educational problems, conflict resolution, social work, and wealth management [9,10]. Such transmission of the ethical value of truth is best done by professionals such as lecturers in higher institutions, religious, and other society leaders because higher education is the key driver for change which unfortunately is in crisis in Nigeria [11].
These professionals employ the dialogical method to engage with their subjects, in this case, the student, so that the acquisition of such values is not only communicated in a healthy atmosphere but imbibed and put into practice for the good of such individuals and society at large [10,12,13]. Ike [8] argues that since no man lives in isolation, values which are inculcated are “the rails that keep a train on the track and help the train move smoothly, quickly, and with direction” (p.46) and posits that the best way to carry out this transmission is through education and in this, teachers play a vital and pivotal role. Ike [8] further opines that higher education becomes the vehicle of value communication to students because it is the medium of “communication of skills, attitudes, values, and behavior patterns that are desirable in a person both as an individual and as a member of society” (p.46). Teachers, by lecturenting, help society to preserve and promote its values and thus the social, moral, aesthetic, and spiritual fabric of such a society is maintained and promoted [13]. This is particularly so because Ike [8] emphasizes that parents and teachers are major sources of values which are then imparted to their students via the process of lecturenting. Other major sources of values, according to Ike [8], include relations, elders, peers, and friends [14]. In the process of lecturenting, teachers can also perform one or more of the above roles as long as the situation and context permit [5].
In the process of lecturenting, Ike [8] classifies the types of values that teachers can communicate and transmit to their students into four, namely: personal, social, behavioral, and moral and spiritual. Personal values are expected to be personally possessed by the teachers and transmitted to their students while carrying out their daily duties. These include cleanliness, contentment, courage, creativity, determination, diligence, dedication to labour, discernment, excellence, honesty, hope, maturity, punctuality, self-control, self-motivation, and simplicity. Social values are oriented towards others, in other words, they deal with one’s personal relationship with others in society. These values promote good neighborliness. These include accountability, brotherhood, concern for the environment, courtesy, dialogue, dutifulness, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, gratitude, hospitality, justice, love, magnanimity, patience, repentance, responsibility, service, sharing, sportsmanship, sympathy, team spirit, and tolerance. Behavioral values refer to such good manners that are acceptable and approved by society for the good of all. These include responsible dressing, manner of speech, relationship with others, gentility, uprightness of mind and moral goodness, table manners, tact and delicacy, independence of character, and personal habits. Moral and Spiritual values are related to an individual concerning what is right and virtuous which are also desirable for the good functioning of society. These include self-control, self-purification, knowledge, detachment, faith, loyalty, non-violence, obedience, prayer, purity, renunciation, and truthfulness.
Examples of building upon lecturenting in the literature
While several studies have found a correlation between lecturing jobs of lecturers and their parenting roles to their students, some studies have shown that some lecturers are not interested in taking on parenting roles in schools and instead prefer to focus on their lecturing jobs and providing academic tutoring to their students [15,7]. Tsakpornu [7] opines that counselling students takes away from the time lecturers need to concentrate on research and publications which are the major requirements for their promotion and other evaluations. Allagoa [3] in a study of 350 lecturers from four higher institutions in River’s state, Nigeria, found that most lecturers were not interested in parenting their students. Some studies have established that students who have a warm relationship with their lecturers tend to perform well academically and adjust more positively to the academic environment. Such students feel more motivated particularly if they perceive their lecturers positively [16,17]. Such studies show that students’ interactions with their lecturers positively affect their values, attitudes, ethics, beliefs, and actions [18,4]. Palaniandy [4] in a study of 98 students at a private Malaysian university found students can behave positively if their lecturers demonstrate positive attributes and they behave negatively if they perceive negative attitudes from their lecturers. Findings show that if the students perceive the lecturers negatively, there is a corresponding decline in their academic performance.
Tsakpornu [7] in a study of fifteen lecturers and twenty former students from government universities in Thailand showed that student-lecturer relationships and counselling of students by lecturers were helpful but also recommended that there should be some institutional process for quality assurance purposes. The respondents agree that such interaction and relationship “positively enhances academic performances and the overall mentoring of students as part of the big scheme of getting them ready for the outside world.” He advocated for the promotion of consultation times with students, individual and group counselling sessions, and lecturers’ participation and patronage in students’ organizational activities. This finding is like a study by Egielewa [5] which interviewed 100 lecturers of two higher institutions in Nigeria on the extent to which lecturers imparted values on their students during their classes. The findings show that university lecturers communicate ethical values to their students during their lectures than their counterparts in Polytechnics and that more males communicate ethical values during lectures than their female counterparts. The value of hard work was also the most highly rated ethical value that lecturers communicated to their students during their classes. In other words, university lecturers engage actively in lecturenting.
Methods
Theoretical framework: Value theory
Value theory can be traced back to Plato. It originates from axiology, the study of value which comes from ethics (i.e., concerning the moral good), politics (i.e., concerning the common good), and aesthetics (i.e., concerning beauty and taste). However, modern value theory may be said to have arisen with modern science, which is distinguished between fact and value [19,20]. Value theory is concerned with the value or worth of people or things which are interpreted in terms of usefulness or economic value [19,21]. Value theory explains that values are at the root of all types of behaviors, whether such behaviors are morally, politically, or economically motivated. Values can be individual or social or both with their individual and social repercussions. However, all individual values are based on social understanding and acceptance. Value theory tries to determine the reasons behind human preferences and choices concerning values and how moderate people behave individually versus communally. Depending on certain circumstances, individual or societal values can change [19,21]. The theory of value is one of the two branches of ethical theories, the other being the theory of right. While the theory of value deals with what is intrinsically good or evil, the theory of right deals with what actions are right or wrong [21]. The theory of value helps to strengthen the common good and why and how individuals and society should promote good and shun evil.
Research design and sampling
The study adopts the descriptive research design. The descriptive research design is either quantitative or qualitative (Apuke, 2017). Since this study employs a large population of students and staff, the quantitative descriptive research design was found to be more suitable. The convenience method was used to select two higher institutions in Nigeria, namely, Federal Polytechnic Auchi and Edo State University Uzairue, both in Edo state. The population of the study is 34,500 based on data derived from recent studies by Egielewa [22] and Egielewa et al. [21], i.e., Federal Polytechnic Auchi has 30,000 students and 2,000 lecturers and Edo State University Uzairue has 2,000 students and 500 lecturers, respectively. Using Krejcie and Morgan’s [24] table for sample size, in which a total population of between 26,000 and 50,000 with an error margin of 5% and a confidence level of 95%, a sample size of 381 would be required. However, a sample size of 500 was used to allow for more acceptable generalizations from the findings. To have an equal perspective of how students in a polytechnic and university perceive the influence of lecturenting in their studies, 250 copies of the questionnaire were equally distributed to both institutions, i.e., 180 for students and 70 for lecturers.
A questionnaire with a set of nine semi-structured questions was designed and used to obtain data from lecturers and students of the selected higher institutions. A total of 360 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to students and 140 were distributed to lecturers from both institutions between July 15 and August 31, 2022 (i.e., six weeks) out of which 266 student questionnaires and 109 lecturer questionnaires were returned. Thus, a total of 375 copies were returned for analysis, translating to a 75% response rate which is adequate for the generalization of the findings of this study.
Results
Data presentation and analysis
Data gathered from the questionnaire show that 52.5% of the respondents were female while 47.5% were male. A breakdown of the respondents from the two institutions equalled: 64.7% were polytechnic students versus 35.3% were university students, and 86.1% were polytechnic lecturers versus 13.9% were university lecturers. Also, 71.5% of the respondents were Christians, 28.5% were Muslims, and 0% were African traditional believers.
Research question 1: How frequently do lecturers in Nigeria engage in lecturenting?
Figure 1 illustrates that almost all respondent lecturers state they have counselled students in addition to their course to their teaching responsibility. Figure 2 indicates that an overwhelming percent of respondent lecturers engage in lecturenting, i.e., counsel their students on how to improve their academic performance. In fact, in two out of every four cases, lecturers concentrated their counselling on the academic improvement of their students compared to their attention to positive behavioral change and general advice.
Research question 2: To what degree do lecturers engage in lecturenting?
Similarly, to the findings from Figure 1, Figure 3 shows that lecturers engage very frequently in counselling their students. Lecturers of Federal Polytechnic Auchi engage in counselling at a ratio of 4:1 in relation to their counterparts from Edo State University Uzairue. Table 1 indicates that lecturers counselled both genders of students almost equally, which means no gender discrimination was more frequently counselled.
Research question 3: To what extent do students perceive lecturenting in their lecturers?
Figure 4 shows that three out of every five students (i.e., 59.09%) state they have been counselled by lecturers during their studies. Figure 5 indicates that, in general, an overwhelming number of students (i.e., 69%) state that lecturer counselling has helped them to make amendments to their life and studies. Categorically, two out of every three students admit that lecturer counselling has helped them to make some adjustments in their life. However, more students from Federal Polytechnic Auchi (i.e., 50%) indicate lecturer counselling has helped them compared to their Edo State University Uzairue counterparts (i.e., 20%). In a nutshell, for every three students who have been impacted by their lecturer counselling two are likely to be polytechnic students and one university student.
Research question 4: In what ways has lecturenting impacted students?
Like data from Figure 5 which indicates that lecturer counselling helped students to make amendments in their life, Table 2 shows that the impact was more in general advice (i.e., 52.1%) with positive behavioral change being the least (i.e., 14.6%). Explicitly, while lecturers concentrated on their counselling in the areas of academic improvement of their students (Figure 2), students felt more impact in general advice. Both lecturers (i.e., 17.4%) and students (i.e., 14.6%) found positive behavioral change as the least impacted by lecturer counselling. Figure 6 points out that 58% (i.e., N = 115) of the student’s state that their academic performance has improved because of lecturer counselling while 42 (i.e., N = 84) of the students state their behavior became more positive. This data confirms data from Figure 2 and Table 2 in which positive behavioral change was neither of interest to lecturers nor to the students.
Statistical analysis of the hypotheses
Table 3 reveals that with a degree of difference of 12, and a p-value of 0.032 which is less than the acceptable p-value of 0.05, the null hypothesis is rejected. In other words, there is a significant relationship between the frequency of lecturenting and lecturer perception of the lecturenting impact on students. This means that the more lecturers engage in lecturenting the more positive impact it will have on their students. Table 4 shows that with a degree of difference of 16, and a p-value of 0.000 which is less than the acceptable p-value of 0.05, the null hypothesis is rejected. Specifically, there is a significant relationship between lecturenting and undergraduates’ positive behavioral change. This means that the more lecturers engage in lecturenting the more the behavior of students will become more positive.
Discussion
This study shows that lecturers have counselled students at one time or the other during their teaching career agreeing with the views of several researchers [1-3,5] who posit that lecturers take on counselling roles in addition to their teaching responsibility. Results indicate that most lecturers counselled their students on how to improve their academic performance and paid the least attention to their positive behavioral change and general advice. This aligns with studies by Koko [3] and Tsakpornu [7] which showed that academic improvement was the most important counselling responsibility of lecturers. Moreover, this corroborates studies by Allagoa [3] which assert that lecturers were not interested in the behavioral change of students but concentrated on the academic improvement of their studies.
Data from the study show that lecturers engage very frequently in counselling their students and there is no marked difference in the gender of students they counsel and lecturers of Federal Polytechnic Auchi engage in counselling more than their university counterparts at a ratio of 4:1. These results indicate that lecturenting is commonly practiced by Nigerian lecturers who see it as their contribution to helping their students to adapt to the wider world outside the campus [3-5]. Results also show that 60% of students recognize the practice of lecturenting because many of their lecturers have counselled them one time or more during their studies while another 70% of the students’ state lecturenting helped them to make amendments in their life and studies, especially in their academics. It should be noted that although the polytechnic students attest to more impacts of lecturenting than their university counterparts at a ratio of 2:1 in their lecturenting responsibilities, many lecturers have paid attention on communicating such values as hard work, respect, honesty, and commitment [5-7]. This is related to the view of Obiora Ike who has particularly emphasized the communication of hard work as a key function of lecturenting which lecturers regularly carry out [8,12,13,10]. However, the findings negate studies by some scholars [7,15] which found that lecturers were not interested in lecturenting but preferred to focus on their teaching and research career.
Two chi-square hypotheses tests confirmed and rejected both null hypotheses and affirmed or corroborated the findings of the study, namely: (1) the more lecturers engage in lecturenting, the more positive impact they will have on their students, and (2) the more lecturers engage in lecturenting, the more the behavior of their students will become more positive. The findings of this study confirm the postulations of value theory which asserts that values are at the root of all types of behavior. In lecturenting, lecturers communicate the value of hard work which forms the basis of advising students to be serious with their studies and which helps them improve their academic performance [19,21]. The communication of values, especially that of hard work, according to Obiora Ike [8,13,10,12] is the most important value that both lecturers and society need to inculcate in students in the process of lecturenting.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that Nigerian lecturers counselled students very frequently during their teaching career irrespective of student gender. Also, most lecturers concentrated their counselling of students on how to improve their academic performance and paid the least attention to the positive behavioral change of students. Consequently, both students and lecturers agree that lecturenting occurs in Nigerian higher institutions. Although many lecturers frequently communicate values, especially hard work, to their students in the process of lecturenting, lecturers of the Federal Polytechnic Auchi engage in lecturenting more than their Edo State University Uzairue counterparts. In general, students affirm that lecturenting helped them to make amendments in their life and studies, although polytechnic students attest to more impacts of lecturenting than their university counterparts. Similarly, the study concludes that the more lecturers engage in lecturenting, the more positive impact they will have on their students as well as the more the behavior of their students will become more positive.
Obiora Ike’s postulation that teachers regularly communicate values to their students and young people in Nigeria is confirmed in the process of lecturenting. Ike’s [8] postulation of value communication is also the bedrock of the theory of value theory which posits that value communication is the basis of all behavioral change and since lecturenting makes students change course and take their academic work seriously, the application of the value theory as the theoretical framework for this study is thus justified. As a result of the conclusion, the following suggestions are recommended: (1) lecturers should engage in the practice of lecturenting as it helps to improve student academic performance; (2) university lecturers engage more in lecturenting as the process helps their students; (3) students should see lecturenting as positive and be favorably disposed to it and approach their lecturers for counselling frequently, and (4) further studies should be carried out to interrogate why both lecturers and students do not emphasize a behavioral change in the lecturenting process.
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