COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ECONOMICS LECTURERS QUESTIONING ALLOWED WAIT-TIME IN FOUR FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH-WEST NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined comparative analysis of economics lecturers questioning allowed wait-time in four federal universities in the south-west Nigeria. The level of students’ response to questions in teaching-learning process depends on the time giving by the instructor for students to ruminate when faced with questions. The study adopted ex-post facto design of survey research type; forty (40) economics lecturers were observed, ten (10) lecturers each from the four university (University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Lagos, and Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta) who are handling the compulsory courses either as junior or senior lecturers were selected through two-stage sampling techniques from four sampled universities. One validated observation instrument was used to collect data for the study. This is: University Economics Lecturer Questioning Effectiveness Observation Sheet (? = 0.75). Three research questions were raised and answered. The data obtained were analysed using percentage count of descriptive statistics, t-test and Anova at 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that in a typical economics lecture, the lecturer allowed three to four minutes for group of students to ruminate on higher-order questions, one to two minutes each for lower-order question to individual and group of students, one minute for higher-order question to individual student and follow-up questions attract least wait time. There was a significant mean difference in questioning wait-time allowed, between junior (X = 10.67, Sd = 0.816) and senior (X = 13.33, Sd = 2.08) lecturers. (t ₍₃₉₎ = 2.880, P = 0.024). There was no significant mean difference in wait-time allowed among the observed economics lecturers by institutions except in higher-order questions to group of students (F _{(3, 36)} = 4.506, p < 0.05). The paper recommended that: teaching effectiveness is likely going to be enhanced when enough wait-time is given to students and hence allowed for enhanced academic standard in critical thinking.