ABSTRACT

What we believe to be of practical help to lecturers depends upon how we define the aim of teaching, so the greater part of this chapter is concerned with clarifying this basic issue. If you were to believe that teaching is about imparting knowledge, then the main requirement of the lecturer would be the possession of that knowledge. For some time, this has been the prevailing view of university teaching, and therefore academics are appointed on the basis of their qualifications in subject matter knowledge. There is probably also an implicit requirement that they should be capable of imparting the knowledge as well as knowing it. However, since this is done through lectures, and they can all talk, the requirement has not been dignified with any sort of qualification.