ANALYSING THE INFLUENCE OF LECTURERS’ PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF UGANDA: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM NKUMBA AND KYAMBOGO UNIVERSITIES, UGANDA

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to establish the influence of lecturers’ pedagogical practices on students’ academic performance in the universities of Uganda. The study delineated pedagogical practices in Kyambogo and Nkumba universities of central Uganda. The objective of the study was to analyse the influence of lecturers’ pedagogical practices on students’ academic performance in the selected universities of Uganda, using a sample of 334 randomly selected final-year students and purposively selected lecturers from the selected universities. The study utilised a convergent parallel mixed methods research design, an objective and subjective epistemological positioning and a dualism ontological stance. Findings from the correlation results revealed a significant positive, but moderately weak relationship between pedagogical practices and students’ academic performance in the selected universities of Uganda (r = 0.486, p = 0.000 < 0.05). Regression analysis results indicated that the pedagogical approaches, engagement/interaction and assessment practices, when combined as in the model, explained only 23.6% of the variation in students’ academic performance in the selected universities of Uganda (R2 = .236). The remaining (76.4%) may be explained by other factors which were not considered in the study. The study, therefore, recommended that Government of Uganda (GoU), through the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) of Uganda, and other supervisory bodies of higher education ought to give ample sensitization and training to the university lecturers on better adoption and application of appropriate assessment practices to enhance students’ academic performance in the universities of Uganda.  Article visualizations