1,720,961 research outputs found
Book Review: Freedom to Learn: The Threat to Student Academic Freedom and Why it Needs to be Reclaimed
No full textBook Review: Freedom to Learn: The Threat to Student Academic Freedom and Why it Needs to be ReclaimedBook Author: Macfarlane, B.(2017) London: Routledge Taylor and Francis
From Useto Influence: Student evaluation of teaching and the professional development of academics in HigherEducation
Get PDFThe literature raises concerns that Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) is not always used effectively to transform teaching practice in higher education. This paper reports on a study that was conducted across four faculties of a research-intensive university in South Africa to examine 17 academics’ engagement in a self-driven SET process. Kirkhart’s integrated theory of evaluation influence was used to analyse the collected data. Findings indicate that participation in self-driven SET influenced the academics to reflect deeply on their approaches, to prioritise context specific challenges and to interrogate elicited feedback to better understand students and their own engagement with teaching and learning. I argue that the use of SET in evaluating performance, limits and underplays the importance of personal and contextual factors that are crucial to support effective practices. The paper suggests that to complement the unavoidable institutional standardised processes whilst ensuring effective SET, robust self-driven processes should be promoted
Macfarlane, B. (2017). Freedom to Learn: The Threat to Student Academic Freedom and Why it Needs to be Reclaimed. London: Routledge Taylor and Francis.
Get PDFMacfarlane, B. Freedom to Learn: The Threat to Student Academic Freedom and Why it Needs to be Reclaimed
Get PDFThis is a review of
Macfarlane, B. 2017. Freedom to Learn: The Threat to Student Academic Freedom and Why it Needs to be Reclaimed. London: Routledge Taylor and Francis
Progressive methods of teaching history at school level in Swaziland: teachers' perceptions of what is essential to their classroom practices
No full textThe primary aim of the study, is to investigate teachers’ views about what is necessary for
the effective use of progressive methods in the teaching of history. It argues that the mere
adoption of procedures associated with progressive methods in teaching without awareness of the essentials for using them' does not lead to the expected results. The
study draws its research from two high schools in the Manzini Region in Swaziland, and
concludes that even though teachers were using a terminology of progressive methods
when talking about their teaching strategies, they were unaware of the essential skills
related to such terminology, anJ subsequently could not encourage the development of
such skills. Their understanding of the nature of history as a discipline and its value as a
school subject is also identified as limited. The study recommends that for teachers to
overcome these shortcomings, they need to be part of the discourses that defines their
discipline and the discussions on what is essential for the teaching of history
Creating Spaces and Enabling Transitions for Engagement in SoTL: Can Policy Provide a Framework for Action?
Get PDFMuch has been written on the conceptualisation of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), and on the approaches and methods used by scholars across the globe. A major challenge is how SoTL can be moved from being an add-on option for academic staff, to a culture embedded in the way higher education institutions engage with teaching and learning. This paper reflects on an institutional policy on the evaluation of teaching as a means to create spaces and enable transitions for academics’ engagement in SoTL. Elements of the policy aimed at encouraging SoTL and their implications for the anticipated change are discussed. The paper argues that the practices foregrounded in the policy statements create spaces to support academics’ transitions to engage in SoTL. However, for this to happen, the paper suggests that a clear strategy is needed to support change at all levels. This strategy should provide support and guidance on the uptake of SoTL at the individual, faculty, and institutional level
Knowledge and practice of continuous assessment : The barriers for policy transfer
No full textStudent Number: 9710860W
School of Education
Doctor of PhilosophyThe study investigates the extent to which primary school teachers understood and implemented the
requirements of the continuous assessment programme that has been introduced in primary schools
in Swaziland. By focussing on teaching and learning activities that occurred during eight teachers’
lessons within the Salesian-Ekutsimuleni zone in Manzini, and what they expressed as intentions
and justifications for these activities, it tries to clarify, in particular, the relationship between their
assessment strategies and the broader educational principles promoted by the programme.
Classroom observations and stimulated interviews were used to capture, respectively, data on what
teachers did and principles that informed their behaviour. Codes abstracted from classroom
observations and grounded on the views expressed by teachers indicate that they followed slavishly
what was contained in the curriculum support materials with which they had been provided. Even
though they used assessment strategies promoted by the Continual Assessment (CA) programme,
their assessment strategies prioritized knowledge-retention rather than the cognitive development
advocated by the programme and, in a specific sense, implied by lesson objectives they had to
fulfil. The conclusion is that teachers could not translate the rhetoric of the CA programme into
relevant professional judgement, decisions and practices without exposure to meaningful
development programmes.
Key Words
Swaziland, Continuous Assessment, Criterion - Referenced Assessment, Mastery learning,
Fordism, Post-Fordis
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
- …
