Introduction

A new theory for higher education learning which proposes learner and instructor based factors as germane for students understanding of concepts in higher education provides a new era of thinking for academics in the higher education space seeking a theoretical framework that underpins students understanding of concepts.

Academics in the higher education space, especially those seeking solutions to students’ underperformance in courses and subjects have largely borrowed theories not originally intended for the higher education echo system to build on their studies.

This has largely been because of seemingly lack of specific theories related to higher education learning that are propounded specifically to address students understanding of concepts/topics.

With the emergence of the theory of higher education learning by Dr. Fred Awaah of the University of Professional Studies, Accra, this trend will witness a decline and stimulate new debates on the generalizability of the theory intended to cure factors that depress students understanding of concepts/topics within the higher education space.

The theory

The propounder accentuates that, the theory is motivated by the increasing level of poor student achievement in courses perceived as difficult to learn or understand within the higher education space especially within Africa.

This assertion led to his investigation of the factors depressing students understanding of concepts within the Africa higher education space with specific focus on Ghana, Nigeria and Burundi for five years. Within the stated period, the theorist states that, he experimented with teaching methods with universities students in bids to establish if teaching methods also influenced students understanding of concepts/topics in higher educational institutions.

He notes that, evidence from the data collected from the three countries formed the basis of his theory.

He argues that, the theory will incite debate and provide further insights into higher education learning models; asserting that, the novelty of his work lies in the five prepositions proven to enhance effective teaching and learning in higher education.

Specifically, it introduces an extension to Piaget’s cognitive constructivist theory by proposing higher age brackets for students at the university level, opportunity (for future studies) to close the gap in Ausubul’s theory of advance organizers, and endogenous factors to bridge the gap in Okebukola’s Culturo-Techno-Contextual Approach.

Assumptions

He underpins his theory with the assumptions that, gender relates to only male and female; age must be consistent with the parameter set (18-40 years); there must be learners’ desire to study the same subject after school; there must be an institution offering further studies in the same subject; instructor might have understood the subject in his/her official training, experience, or practice; and instructors must demonstrate certainty, accuracy, verifiability, and reliability in the transfer of knowledge to the learners.

Prepositions

Hinged on the findings of the three country studies and desk reviews, he establishes that, gender, age, opportunity for further studies (learner centered)), instructor knowledge and instructor confidence (teacher centered) are germane to students understanding of concepts in institutions of higher learning as represented in the model.


Figure 1. The Awaah model for higher education learning (TAMHEL)

Validation

To validate the theoretical components, he proposed the Awaah Theory of Higher Education Learning Questionnaire (TATHEL-Q) designed using information from reviewed literature and using his own scale. The instrument is intended for other researchers who may want to test the theory in their universities.

The theory is published by the Asian Journal of Education and Development, an Emerald Journal indexed in the Scopus database.

The full paper is found at https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/aeds-07-2024-0145/full/html

Implications

To the extent that teachers in the higher education space apply themselves to being knowledgeable in their specific areas of expertise, it will translate into an accurate transfer of such knowledge to students, thus enhancing their understanding of various subjects (Awaah,2024).

This stance is further situated in the context that knowledgeable teachers will exhume high levels of confidence that will inure students’ understanding of the concepts, he states. Specific to age, he argues against Piagets’ age specifications citing that, it largely does not apply to higher education, thus students below 18 years of age may suffer conceptual difficulties in understanding subjects at the higher educational level; drawing inferences from the works of Nasir (2012), that academic performance improves with age; there is a favourable associations between age and academic achievement - older students have better-completing degree GPAs than younger students (Keith, Byerly, Floerchinger, Pence & Thornberg (2006); (Sheard, 2009).

Similarly, concepts in each program should be buildups of the previous curriculum to reflect the component of opportunity (for further studies) as a build on previous scaffolds.

From a gender perspective, he argues that, a learner should identify as male or female devoid of their looks and feelings consistent with the conservative cultural orientation of sex defined as male or female (binary).

Within the framework of opportunity, management may ensure that courses offered at the diploma level are also mounted at the first degree, master ’s, and doctoral levels to ensure that students have the opportunity to further their studies in the same field or area of study.

This will encourage studetns to excel in their present study in anticipation of moving on to a higher level of the same training.