HANDOUTS FOR INDUCTION OF PART TIME LECTURERS (3)

Theme One—Orientation
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This induction handout should be read in tandem with the Academic Plan of the Central University of Technology, Free State in Appendix A.

The current debate for programme development in Higher Education is about a developing process of teaching and learning, training and the development of scientific thought.

Quite often we hear the following myths associated with teaching:

 “If you know it, you can teach it”.
 “Good lecturers are born”.
 “Lecturers teach content, not students”.

However, due to the changing context of higher education ell as changing students’ profiles, it is acknowledged that all academics need a much deeper understanding of their work and professional development.

The purpose of professional development

The purpose of professional development of academic staff is to enhance the quality of teaching for part time students at the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) and it’s Regional Learning Centres.

More specifically, academic staff development aims to:

 broaden and deepen knowledge of teaching at university level;
 develop teaching skills and abilities; and
 Influence the attitudes of lecturers in respect of teaching, and the total student learning experience.


THE PURPOSE OF THIS THEME

The purpose of this theme is to introduce important teaching and learning aspects to you as part time lecturer.

More specifically, this module aims to introduce you to:

 Learning processes, needs and learning problems of students;
 Information on formulating outcomes;
 Information on models and criteria for learning material selection;
 Different lecturing methods; and
 Guidelines for the effective assessment of learning.

UNIT ONE

TEACHING AND LEARNING POLICY OF THE CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, FREE STATE (CUT)


1. INTRODUCTION

The main function of this teaching-learning plan is to make it clear to the Government, the Council on Higher Education, the Higher Education Quality Committee, prospective learners, employers, and other interest goups what the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) does in the area of learning and teaching and intends to do in the future; what makes CUT distinctive and where the university sits in the higher education sector in the Free State region, nationally and internationally. However, this document should not be seen as a professional strait-jacket enforcing grey uniformity in all programmes and modules. We are endeavouring to create an open system making provision for considerable variation, so as to accommodate every individual instructional programme while pursuing the general aims of our teaching and learning policy.

This unit comprises two sections namely the educational values and points of departure CUT follows and envisages and secondly the teaching and learning development plan and set specific outcomes for its achievement.


2. LEADING POLICIES INFLUENCING TEACHING AND LEARNING AT CUT

In all its teaching and learning endeavours the CUT is lead by the leading policies in this regard. The Higher Education Act, Act 101 of 1997, is the end product (outcome) of the deliberations, beliefs, ideas and inputs of South African educational as well as of knowledgeable experts from other countries. In the Preamble to the Act (1997:2) the first two sentences are of particular importance, namely:

“Whereas it is desirable to establish a single co-ordinated higher education system, which promotes co-operative governance and provides for programme-based higher education”

Restructure and transform programmes and institutions to respond better to the human resource and economic needs of the Republic of South Africa”... Of particular importance for the CUT is the plea to align its programme offerings with the Human Resource Development Strategy.

The abovementioned act was preceded by the White Paper on Higher Education Transformation (April – July 1997), which reflects on challenges facing higher education institutions in future. The latter document stipulates quite clearly in clause 2.19 that:

“The programme-based approach, through ensuring greater articulation between the different tiers of the HE system, promoting flexibility and diversification in the range of programmes offered and fostering cooperation between institutions will result in structural changes and a reconfiguration of the institutional landscape...”

The Government Gazette (15 August 1997: par. 2.5 and 2.6) also lists some changes that such a programme-based approach will generate within the higher education system. In the abovementioned documents, it is stated in no uncertain terms that: --

• An outcomes-based approach to higher education is on the table;

• Teaching-learning modes and programmes need to be restructured; and

• The academic functions of higher education institutions will probably be reconfigured.

The establishment of educational bodies and authorities during the last number of years drastically changed the higher education landscape. Some of these entities have very important implications for the implementation of a programme-based higher education system and the adoption of an outcomes-based education and training approach to teaching and learning.


2.1 The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) and the National Qualifications Framework (NQF)

The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), established by section 3 of the South African Qualifications Authority Act 1995 (Act No 58 of 1995), legalises governmental involvement in higher education as it requires that all qualifications must be registered on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). Section 5 (1) (a) (ii) of the SAQA Act compels the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) to comply with the policies and criteria formulated by SAQA. This obviously have major implications for programme planning and development for the previous technikon sector who now has obtained University of Technology status and who is now responsible for their own programmes.

The NQF therefore is the linchpin of the government’s plan for education and training in South Africa. It is the instrument through which access, quality and development will most effectively be encouraged as we move towards becoming a truly learning society. Some of the guiding principles for teaching and learning at CUT appear to be:

• establishing a learning environment which enables people to realise their full social and economic potential in the modern world;

• to provide educated people who are independent problem solvers and reflective learners and who have learned how to learn and how to continue learning;

• to provide a learning environment with the proper integration of academic abilities and workplace skills, in order to produce qualifications which not only meet needs, but have appropriate intellectual content;
• to remove the ‘learning ceiling” and to provide the pathway of lifelong learning towards meaningful qualifications; and
• In essence, to establish the framework for a nation of lifelong learners who are able to realise their full potential through flexible curricula.

In order to pursue its objectives and execute its functions, SAQA is required to accredit bodies that will be responsible for monitoring and auditing learning provision and learning achievements against NQF registered standards and qualifications. SAQA has stated that tertiary institutions may be accredited as a provider by an Education and Training Quality Assurance Body (ETQA), if the body seeking accreditation, inter alia, has:

• policies and practices for staff selection, appraisal and development;
• policies and practices for the management of assessment;
• a clear and unambiguous commitment to learners;
• teaching and learning services and responsibilities;
• learner support systems, as well as the use of tutors, mentors and learning resources;
• evaluation and research facilities;
• evidence of policies and procedures for staff development and staff development opportunities; and
• Enhance the implementation of the institutions policy on equal opportunities for all.

2.2 The National Plan for Higher Education

The National Plan for Higher Education provides the framework and mechanisms to achieve the vision and goals of the higher education system outlined in the Education White Paper 3: A programme for the transformation of higher education. It is the Ministry of Education’s response to the Council on Higher Education’s (CHE) report: Towards a new higher education landscape: Meeting the equity, quality and social development imperatives of South Africa in the 21 st century, which was released in June 2000.

The National Plan has far-reaching implications for numerous aspects of higher education. What concerns is those sections of the Plan with implications for programme matters.

• Higher education institutions should have effective academic development programmes in place to meet the teaching and learning needs of the learners they admit. Academic development programmes should be integrated into the overall academic and financial planning.
• For the short and medium term, the broad function and mission of universities and technikons are recognised as two types of institutions offering different kinds of higher education programmes. In planning for at least the next five years, technikons will be regarded as institutions whose primary function is to provide career-oriented programmes at the diploma level.
• The programme mix at institutions will be determined for the next five years on the basis of their current programme profile and their demonstrated capacity and potential to add new programmes to the profile.
• Programme and infrastructural collaboration between institutions has an important part to play in the transformation of the higher education system. Programme collaboration should be developed co-operatively.

2.3 The New Academic Policy (2001) (NAP)

The purpose of the New Academic Policy (NAP) is to give effect to the policy guidelines set out in the White Paper, Higher Education Act and the National Plan. It aims to provide the academic planning framework to underpin the National Plan for Higher Education and should, according to the Foreword, be read together with the SAQA’s document: Development of level descriptors for the National Qualifications Framework.

The NAP (not yet finally approved) is intended to do the following:

• To provide a detailed framework for the development and provision of higher education programmes and qualifications within a single, coordinated higher education sector, which gives effect to the goals for higher education as set out in the White Paper and the National Plan for Higher Education.
• To provide a coherent and comprehensive policy framework for the provision of higher education programmes and qualifications which will shape and supplement the policies and practices of SAQA and the HEQC with respect to the registration of qualifications and the accreditation and evaluation of programmes.
• To provide guidance to higher education institutions as they develop appropriate programme mixes in accordance with their institutional missions and three-year rolling plans.
• To provide for the effective and efficient utilisation of public resources expended on higher education by minimising wasteful overlap and duplication of programmes and qualifications.

Based on the implications of policy demands and national goals set for higher education teaching and learning at the CUT will align itself with the following educational values, curriculum approach and strategies. It is clear that all of this have far-reaching implications for our institution and will require a number of philosophical changes regarding teaching and learning.

4 EDUCATIONAL VALUES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING: OUR STARTING POINT

CUT envisages installing a teaching and learning culture underpinned by scholarship and would like to see its staff to act as positive role models by embracing the highest standards of scholarship and academic excellence. Apart from being academics and researchers we would like to see our lecturers integrating and applying knowledge and motivating our learners to become lifelong learners. Therefore we encourage our learners to become active learners and to participate in the design and improvement of our academic programmers – thus the introduction of a learning centered approach.

CUT has a social responsibility to produce graduates who are able to make a positive contribution to the communities in which they live and work. Although much of what a higher education institution teaches is often directed to producing employable graduates, we must encourage learners to broaden their education through the integration of transferable skills into mainstream curriculum.

Based on the National Plan for higher education and the need to enhance throughput and graduate rates CUT realises the need for a greater focus on the promotion of learners’ learning. In doing so, CUT has already implemented a learning-centred teaching and learning approach in which the notion of learning centredness (which obvious have a number of implications for staff, students and related infrastrucutres) is central. Subsequently, CUT recognises the need for an integrated and holistic teaching and learning approach and its academic plan therefor makes provision for the integration of different and flexible teaching approaches, e.g an Outcomes Based Education and Training curriculum (which allows for resource-based learning, the development of specific, critical and transferable skills, problem-based learning, experiential learning, service learning, co-operative learning) which is supported by e-learning, foundation programmes and supplementary instruction. The hope is expressed that this approach will eventually result in the development of a critical perspective and intellectual curiosity in learners – and with that characteristics of lifelong learning and indeed independent self-regulated learners. Apart from enhancing the quality of our learners, it most certainly will enhance throughput rates and decrease failure.

Consequently CUT aims to ensure that all education that it provides is of excellent quality; that is, that the education provided will, within available resources, be best suited to the needs of individual learners and will result in each learner being given the opportunity of reaching his or her highest possible standard of personal achievement and development, recognising that it is for each learner to make the most of that opportunity and that the highest possible standard of personal achievement will vary from learner to learner. It is important that this continues to be fully reflected in external evaluations of the university’s educational provision such as quality assessment.

4 Equity

As also stated in the operational student enrolment management plan CUT is committed to equity and redress. CUT has therefore set targets to ensure that programmes offered at CUT, reflects the South African population whilst it also wishes to enroll learners with special educational needs, more female students as well as students from SADC countries and abroad. In programme design, development and content CUT wishes to increasingly take the diverse background of its learners into consideration and contribute towards developing programmes that are relevant and free of cultural biases and prejudices.

Based on the Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa, CUT wishes to contribute towards meeting the needs of the country. Therefore in its academic planning a high premise is placed on the development of relevant and marketable skills. CUT is aware of the growing expectations from higher education institutions to develop in learners a range of transferable skills alongside subject-specific skills, knowledge and understanding. Key skills that need to be developed and that are accepted most widely in the South African context are those of communication skills, numeracy, use of IT, learning how to learn, problem-solving skills and team and group work. In developing these skills together with discipline based knowledge the hope is expressed that a range of skills that would be adaptable to the various employment environments in which they might find themselves will be developed.

CUT has already implemented a number of bridging and foundation programmes to instill these skills within students – e.g. a foundation programme in reading development, information literacy and career advanced programmes in engineering, management and business sciences.
LEARNER GUIDE

This is a manual composed of prescribed text, compiled by a lecturer. This text is usually recommended in addition to, or as an alternative to the prescribed textbooks. In other words, it is not a guide, but a complete set of notes on a specific subject.

Life-Long Learning

In allignment with the National Qualifications Framework and other policy iniatives and imperatives CUT recognises that learning does not only happen in formal settings but also informal setting and that learner should therefore be credited as such. To give impetus to the notion of lifelong learning the institution has also policy on the recognition of prior learning and encourages this notion within their learners.

Flexible learning provision

CUT believes that as a learning-centred institution flexible learning should be provided to learners. Learner-centred instruction is a broad approach that includes such techniques as substituting active learning experiences for lectures, holding learners responsible for material that has not been explicitly discussed in class, assigning open-ended problems and problems requiring critical or creative thinking that cannot be solved by following text examples, involving learners in simulations and role-plays, assigning a variety of unconventional writing exercises, and using self-paced and/or cooperative (team-based) learning.

The 'flexible' dimension of learning can be defined as seek(ing) to increase the learners' choices of: methods and timing of interaction with learning facilitators and other learners without diminishing the quality of that interaction; place and time of learning; course modules (award structures and pathways); entry and exit conditions; and access to administrative and learner learning support. There may be different perceptions of what flexible delivery is, and in context of CUT flexible delivery is defined as the provision of learning and assessment opportunities in a way that does not require the learner to be present at a particular place or at set times. The materials may be presented in a variety of modes, increasing the degree of learner control over when, where, how and at what pace they learn. In general, flexible delivery is a vision for a learning-centred form of education.

The need for this flexibility is driven by national imperatives to widen access to social groups currently under-represented in higher education: financial pressures on learners resulting in more and more having to work during term-time (often during the day-time) to support. We believe that flexible teaching models provide the opportunity to present learners with new kinds of effective learning experiences and to reach learners unable to attend campus at a particular time and place.

A subject/programme delivered in flexible delivery mode may incorporate any, or all, of the following choices:

• geographical location of the point of subject delivery;
• time of day and period of the year in which subjects are taken;
• methods used to deliver subject information;
• pathways and processes taken to achieve subject goals/outcomes; and
• Form and timing of assessment.

CUT is committed to continuing to increase flexibility in its approaches to learning and teaching. We particularly need to consider flexibility in entry points into the university and its offerings, in the types of awards that are available, in different pathways through courses, in multiple exit points, and in different forms of course delivery. By moving towards a more flexible learning environment in these ways, the needs of learners may be better served and educational outcomes may be improved.