Scholarship of Teaching & Learning
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Clarence, Sherran (SUN Media, 2011)[more][less]
Abstract: Writing and reading critically are core academic practices that many South African tertiary students struggle with throughout undergraduate study. This is partly due to a lack of competency in English as a first language, and partly due to a lack of preparation at primary and secondary school level. Critical reading and writing practices need to be developed simultaneously, and contextually. The Writing Centre at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) is currently exploring ways to make itself a more relevant and focused part of the University’s teaching and learning interventions and strategies, and to make it more responsive to the multiple reading, writing and language needs of students. Influenced theoretically and practically by New Literacy Studies and Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) approaches, the Writing Centre is working to position itself as part of a teaching and learning environment that develops and supports both student writers and disciplinary lecturers. We aim to do this by foregrounding, theorising, researching and building a culture of writing intensive teaching that imagines and uses writing as a tool for learning, thinking and evaluation, as well as for assessment. In order to become a significant part of teaching and learning in higher education more generally, Writing Centres will need to work increasingly with lecturers to address the writing and reading needs of students in a supportive, critical and collaborative space that better serves the needs of both parties. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/599 Files in this item: 1
ClarenceWritingAcademy2011.pdf (721.0Kb) -
Clarence, Sherran (Taylor & Francis, 2012)[more][less]
Abstract: This paper discusses the role of a writing centre in creating spaces for talk about and change in disciplinary writing pedagogy. It asks how collaborative partnerships between disciplinary academics and Writing Centre practitioners might be established and nurtured sustainably. Drawing on insights from two collaborations with academics in political studies and law, the article asserts that writing centre practitioners play a valuable role in talking about and changing the way academic writing and literacy is taught in the disciplines. This is shown by working consistently with the understanding that critical reading, thinking and writing are literacy acts rather than generic skills and must therefore be learned and practiced in the disciplines. By supporting disciplinary academics in re-examining course outcomes, materials and assessments, and moving away from a ‘skills approach’ to writing, it is shown that building discipline-specific spaces for writing and literacy development is possible through these collaborative partnerships. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/578 Files in this item: 2
Clarence_making spaces.pdf (187.0Kb)ClarenceAcademicWriting2012.pdf (180.6Kb) -
Bozalek, Vivienne (Taylor and Francis, 2011)[more][less]
Abstract: Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) research techniques can contribute to decolonising methodologies by alerting participants to privilege and marginalisation through encounters across difference. Consciousness of privileges is often obscured and naturalised as part of normative expectations of everyday living. This paper contends that no one is exempt from interrogating their positionality and their beliefs, and that PLA research techniques can provide the means by which people can be confronted with privileges and marginality through encountering the ‘other’. A case study conducted across Higher Education Institutions in South Africa is presented to show how PLA techniques can make a substantial contribution to processes of research. The case study shows how PLA research techniques make it possible to bring people together to confront differential privileges, thus giving people the opportunity to become both insiders and committed outsiders in their interactions across differences. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/528 Files in this item: 1
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Bozalek, Vivienne; Boughey, Chrissie (Blackwell Publishing, 2012)[more][less]
Abstract: The question of how to make higher education more inclusive has been a central concern in South Africa and elsewhere over the past two decades. However, in South Africa there remains a disjuncture between policy aimed at promoting inclusivity and the experiences of students and staff in the higher education sector. In this article, the relationship between equity of access and equity of outcomes and the expectations that follow from these policy imperatives are examined from the perspective of Nancy Fraser’s normative framework of social justice. In particular, her notion of misframing is used to analyze the current situation in the higher education sector in South Africa. The article concludes that a focus on individual higher education institutions is not sufficient to gain a perspective on the social arrangements required for participatory parity in higher education, and in fact, such a focus is an instance of misframing and thus a form of injustice. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/497 Files in this item: 1
BozalekHigherEducation2012.pdf (226.1Kb) -
Lowther, Mickey; McMillan, Wendy; Venter, Francisca (Actuarial Society of South Africa (ASSA), 2009)[more][less]
Abstract: This paper is located in the field of actuarial professional education. It draws on current literature and empirical evidence to argue the need for developing generic ‘normative’ capabilities and values in the actuarial profession. The paper examines three themes of normative education for actuaries—the intended purpose of an education programme, the range of capabilities and values to be developed and educational ‘best practice’. A literature review of normative education in various professions provided a theoretical framework for data analysis, and for making recommendations. Data were collected from three sources: interviews with stakeholders; documentary evidence regarding current education of actuaries and accountants; and advertisements for employment of nearly or newly qualified actuaries. The paper draws on the literature and the empirical evidence to argue that the purpose of an actuarial education programme is to ensure the delivery of a service of quality. For this delivery to be achieved, attention must be given to technical, normative and organisational learning. The paper then reviews normative capabilities and values for actuaries. Thereafter, educational considerations for the development of normative capabilities and values are discussed. The paper concludes by drawing on the study to outline principles to guide curriculum planning for the normative component of the new South African actuarial qualification. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/91 Files in this item: 1
McMillan_actuarial-quality(2009).pdf (177.8Kb)