South African Journal of Higher Education最新文献

{"title":"Lecturers' perspectives of pedagogical training initiates at a University of Technology in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa","authors":"P.R. Gumede, M.P Sithole, D Gumede","doi":"10.20853/37-5-5287","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20853/37-5-5287","url":null,"abstract":"Professional development of academics in higher education in South Africa has been offered in an uncoordinated and unsustainable manner. Ever since the new dispensation, concerted efforts have been implemented to address this problem. As part of the solution, universities through their academic development units, have introduced various pedagogical training workshops to equip academics with teaching skills. This study investigates perceptions of academics pertaining to this training. A multi-method cross-sectional research design was adopted to understand lecturers’ perspectives regarding professional development. A total of 45 participants were purposefully selected to participate in the study from the academics who attended the pedagogical training. A questionnaire (closed and open-ended) was used to collect data. Quantitative data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), while thematic analysis was applied to analyse qualitative data. Results of the study revealed that the training was well-received and academic staff members felt motivated and confident to implement various instructional strategies acquired from the training. Participants expressed a need and willingness to learn and develop new instructional techniques and acquired a positive outlook on teaching and learning following the professional development training. The study recommends redesigning the pedagogical training to include ongoing support activities and customisation in addition to the generic version.","PeriodicalId":44786,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Higher Education","volume":"103 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135704044","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Invoking posthumanist vistas: A diffractive gaze on curriculum practices and potential","authors":"s Maistry, I Sabelis, S Simmonds","doi":"10.20853/37-5-5988","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20853/37-5-5988","url":null,"abstract":"Humanist discourse has assumed such an ideological normalcy to the extent that any attempts at its disruption are likely to be met with severe resistance. As such, higher education curriculum design and curriculum content continue to be largely anthropocentric, buoyed by human-centred neoliberal principles that have gradually encroached the academe. To explore ways out of the dilemma, we draw on wild pedagogy theory (Jickling 2015; Mcphie and Clarke 2015; Springgay and Zaliwska 2017; Jickling et al. 2018b) as a means to challenge the straitjacket constraints of neoliberal higher education. Over time, the wild has been banished from classrooms: the call for wild pedagogies might mean that we have reached the limits of the “tamed” ‒ and we have tamed a lot in order to offer a “one size fits all” approach to (higher) education (Jickling et al. 2018a). The tendency for higher education to teach more and more people in less and less time, has implied an understanding of teaching that is characterised by efficiency and processing, at the cost of the process of learning as a relational becoming with the world in the posthuman condition we live in (Braidotti 2019). In this article, vignettes are used to offer an account of our critical posthumanist incursions as university lecturers into curriculum practices. We use a diffractive gaze to present the generative potential of non-anthropocentric approaches as well as the struggles that these present as we strive to de-center our humanistic tendencies towards curriculum knowledge and teaching within the neoliberal space, we find ourselves.","PeriodicalId":44786,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Higher Education","volume":"67 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135610489","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Can virtual reality have a positive influence on student engagement?","authors":"M Grewe, L GIE","doi":"10.20853/37-5-5815","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20853/37-5-5815","url":null,"abstract":"Through the rapid development of virtual reality (VR), South African Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) have shown interest in the potential VR has in teaching and learning practices. HEIs are further urged by the South African government to use cutting edge educational technology (edtech) tools to promote student engagement and limit the high dropout rates noticeable in HEIs. The researcher explored the perceived impact VR can have on student engagement. A qualitative research methodology was adopted for this study and the research instruments included open-ended questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and a true experiment. Thirty-six participants took part in the study. The results of the study highlight a 23 per cent higher pass rate and a 180 per cent higher engagement level in students using VR as opposed to students studying via online distance learning. Two themes emerged from the results, namely: (1) the use of VR in teaching and learning, and (2) the influence VR has on student engagement levels. The results of this study further highlight that VR learning yields higher student engagement levels and as a result, students achieve higher marks. The significance of the study lies in the assistance it can offer higher educational institutions in their decision-making process of adopting VR into their teaching and learning processes.","PeriodicalId":44786,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Higher Education","volume":"65 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135613889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Examining teaching and learning through feedback in open distance and e-learning: The views of the students","authors":"L.I. Lumadi","doi":"10.20853/37-5-5373","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20853/37-5-5373","url":null,"abstract":"If virtual assessment lies at the heart of the open, distance and e-learning experience, then information about student responses to the assessment is vital. Feedback is generally thought of as being conveyed by the e-tutor to the student; however, the feedback mechanisms ecosystem demonstrates that student-to-lecturer and student-to-institution are also vital types of feedback. The study followed the mixed method approach to investigate the perceptions of 148 students in the Department of Educational Management universities in South Africa. Of the participants, 143 responded to questionnaires, and the remaining 5 were interviewed by means of a semi-structured interview schedule. The findings indicate that e-tutors did provide feedback to their students, and also that the efficient provision of effective feedback is essential to student learning and continues to be a key concern for many higher education institutions. However, the study also revealed that e-tutors provided conventional, one-dimensional assessment feedback, with negative consequences for teaching and learning. It is recommended that e-tutors should give feedback that encourages students rather than expressing criticism.","PeriodicalId":44786,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Higher Education","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135667893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A descriptive literature review of Recognition of Prior Learning for vocational learners in emergency medical care in South Africa","authors":"D. Winstanley, C. Cunningham","doi":"10.20853/37-4-5313","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20853/37-4-5313","url":null,"abstract":"Radical advances in emergency medical care education in South Africa have resulted in both advancements and suppression. After short-course vocational training, the emergency care provider could seek employment in an emergency service. With the realignment of emergency medical care programmes to the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), these short vocational courses were phased out by 2018. Although necessary for educational advancement, these changes prevented vocationally trained emergency care providers from articulating into higher education without returning to full-time academia. Moreover, despite recognition of prior learning (RPL) policies in higher education, few institutes offering emergency medical care programmes offered this as an access option. This descriptive literature review aimed to analyse the RPL processes in South Africa and globally. Additionally, insight into RPL candidates” support requirements for postgraduate studies was gained. A systematic search of peer-reviewed journal articles, periodicals, dissertations, and governmental reports from 2000 to 2021 was conducted. Various databases were accessed, including Proquest, EBSCOhost, LearnTechLib, JSTOR, ERIC, Google Scholar, and the Thesis Repository. The lack of literature focusing on the prehospital RPL system in South Africa prompted search expansions into the field of health science internationally. Of the 401 screened sources, 19 met the researcher’s inclusion criteria. Two additional articles were sourced in a repeated search in February 2022. The findings revealed enablers and barriers for RPL students and expanded on their personal and academic transitions. The themes identified through the enablers and barriers can assist in identifying additional support for RPL students during their educational journey. Ultimately, despite vital institutional transitions in RPL processes, intrinsic motivation inspired these students to embrace the challenges they faced, and their process of personal transition and lifelong learning began.","PeriodicalId":44786,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Higher Education","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135496067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Adapt or preserve: Lecturers’ experiences of teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa and their self-directedness","authors":"S. C. Mahlaba, E. Mentz","doi":"10.20853/37-4-4858","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20853/37-4-4858","url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 pandemic that has engulfed the whole world has given rise to a number of previously disguised challenges to higher educational institutions (HEIs). In the blink of an eye, lecturers had to facilitate learning in remote environments without any prior training. What aroused the interest in this study was the need to know how lecturers at one university dealt with the sudden shift to remote teaching during the pandemic. The way in which lecturers dealt with the shift may reveal their self-directedness. Using a qualitative open-ended questionnaire, we explored lecturers’ experiences of facilitating remote learning during the pandemic with the aim of uncovering their experiences and exploring how these experiences revealed lecturers’ self-directedness. The findings suggest that lecturers had both positive and negative experiences about facilitating online learning in their remote areas. We concluded that, even though lecturers experienced challenges in facilitating remote learning, most of them were able to introduce solutions to those challenges, indicating some element of being self-directed learners.","PeriodicalId":44786,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Higher Education","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135441720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Information Technology as a catalyst for the professionalisation of academic administrators: A case study of a health sciences faculty","authors":"M. Simpson, C. Shaw","doi":"10.20853/37-4-5205","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20853/37-4-5205","url":null,"abstract":"As academic administrators become a key staffing component of efficiently run universities, their role as knowledge workers is being reframed. This is especially evident as universities increasingly rely on information technologies and student information systems to process vast amounts of student data in the pursuit of improving student success and assisting senior management with future planning. In this study, a qualitative research approach was employed to explore the enabling factors that contributed to academic administrators becoming central to various data quality management processes. Twenty-six (26) participants were purposively selected to participate in this study. Data collection strategies included the use of semi-structured interviews, focus groups, observations and documentary sources. The findings demonstrate the interrelationship between the professionalisation of academic administrators and enhanced data quality management processes. The results reassert the argument for reconceptualising the role of academic administrators as knowledge workers. This position has implications for how such staff are perceived within the organisational structure of the university and the types of staff development and training required.","PeriodicalId":44786,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Higher Education","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135496099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Maintaining the integrity of the South African university: The impact of ChatGPT on plagiarism and scholarly writing","authors":"M Singh","doi":"10.20853/37-5-5941","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20853/37-5-5941","url":null,"abstract":"Recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have reignited discussions about the value of the university and its role in producing and facilitating knowledge. The invention of ChatGPT has led to differing responses in the academy, with some welcoming its abilities and others fearing that it may undermine what schools and universities do, calling it “apocalyptic” (Green 2022). These aspects impact the integrity of the academy and are therefore a fundamental contribution to the debate. The impact, as well as the perceived impact, of AI on teaching and learning in higher education has been consistently documented in popular media. Therefore, the aim of this article is to understand the impact of ChatGPT on plagiarism and scholarly writing. It contributes to the under-researched academic discourse of generative artificial intelligence and teaching and learning by garnering the views of three established professors in South Africa. The findings from this qualitative endeavour demonstrate that, for these professors, these kinds of technology are welcome, and students need to be taught how to engage with them rather than vilifying them. Much of the responsibility rests on the lecturers and the university to create a teaching and learning environment that allows for these technologies to enter the classroom, especially in the way we assess.","PeriodicalId":44786,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Higher Education","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135704824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Curriculum analytics of an Open Distance Learning (ODL) Programme: A data-driven perspective","authors":"E. Mashile, A. Fynn, M. Matoane","doi":"10.20853/37-3-4835","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20853/37-3-4835","url":null,"abstract":"Student support, which is an integral part of a learning programme, is most effective when it is integrated into the design of the curricula, rather than when it forms stand-alone interventions. Identifying those areas that require attention from a student support perspective is often based on the perspectives of the institution and teaching staff involved, rather than on how Students concerned interact with the programme. In this article, we draw on the research fields of curriculum analytics to identify areas of curriculum improvement for an ODL programme using student data. The results of the study indicate the important role that is played by curriculum analytics in designing student support interventions, and in restructuring elements of the curriculum structure to support student success. Such is done by ascertaining what constitutes the learned curriculum versus the planned curriculum, the Temporal Distance between Courses, and any bottlenecks within the programme that might hamper progression. The results, further, underscore the need for an effective execution strategy to be aligned with the principles that guided the development of the curriculum concerned.","PeriodicalId":44786,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Higher Education","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67716039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Establishing a baseline: A social realist perspective on academic advising at a South African university prior to COVID-19","authors":"D. D. Klerk, De Klerk","doi":"10.20853/37-4-5342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20853/37-4-5342","url":null,"abstract":"Academic advising remains an emerging practice and profession within the South African higher education sector. Although there has been an increase in literature about advising in South Africa recently, there remains a dearth of literature about the experiences of academic advisors working in this context. This article aims to make such a contribution, by focusing in particular on the experiences and insights from 15 South African advisors (from one university) about academic advising prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The data that informs this study was collected through semi-structured interviews. The focus in this article is on advisor responses to three of the interview questions, which proved sufficient because of the richness of the data. The study draws on elements of social realist Margaret Archer’s (1995) morphogenetic framework to explicate why this perspective on advising within a South African higher education context is necessary. Archer’s (1995, 2005) work on structure, culture, and agency is then used as analytic lenses with which to analyse the advisors’ experiences and insights of advising prior to the pandemic. A phenomenographic approach (Marton 1981; Tight 2016) is adopted to explore the varying conceptions (Cibangu and Hepworth 2016) of advising offered by the academic advisors. Nine focal areas emerge from these insights, which are analysed and discussed using Archer’s (1995, 2005) structure, culture, and agency. It becomes apparent that academic advising was complex even before the pandemic. The advisors express an urgency to help others, raise concerns about entrenched inequities and resource constraints, highlight the pitfalls of inadequate help-seeking among students, and emphasise the need for better institutional integration of academic advising at the advisors’ university, among other things. It becomes clear that there are numerous structural and cultural tensions that constrain advisor and student agency, possibly to the detriment of student success. The article leaves the reader with insights into the experiences of academic advisors prior to the pandemic, thus providing a baseline against which to measure advising during and beyond the pandemic, at a time when advising in South African higher education is still being developed and defined.","PeriodicalId":44786,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Higher Education","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67716505","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}