Neo Ravhuhali
 

As I look back at the beginning of 2023, I cannot believe how fast time has passed and I want to thank all SoTL participants in the faculty and institutionally for their active engagement in making our SoTL alive. At the same time, I would like to acknowledge our Dean, Prof Mogomme Masoga who joined the Faculty in March 2023 and immediately supported this initiative, inspiring us to continue enhancing teaching and learning through research.

We then continued with our various research projects, some individually while others collaboratively. I want to congratulate Ms Neo Ravhuhali, our former Curriculum Advisor who presented our collaborative project on “Exploring students’ involvement in curriculum advising in higher education: A critical reflection at a traditional University” at the student research colloquium held on 05 October 2023. This study, though it is still at its infancy, is aimed at demonstrating the need to consider students’ perspectives and needs when rendering curriculum advice. My sincere gratitude  goes to other collaborators namely Dr Grey Magaiza, the BSocSci Programme Director on the Qwaqwa campus and Ms Katlego Mabulana, the former Curriculum Advisor.

The cherry on top for our faculty SoTL project is that we had 8 papers presented at the SoTL in the South conference which was held from 21 -23 November at the Golden Gate in the Eastern Free State. For us as a faculty, this shows immense growth. It is also a confirmation of the increase in the number of  SoTL champions in the faculty and we look forward to a better trajectory in the future.

As a Teaching and Learning Manager, I am appreciative of all colleagues who keep showing interest in the project, especially non-academic staff members, who realise that researching their practice has an impact on teaching and learning. I am grateful to the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) for acknowledging me as the Most Valued Professional for the 2023 academic calendar year. I dedicate this award to all my colleagues in the faculty because they made this possible through their immense support.

Introduction by Dr Rosaline Sebolao, Teaching and Learning Manager

From Good Teaching to Scholarly Teaching

I am excited to share this brief reflection on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project offered by the Faculty of the Humanities. I titled this piece From Good Teaching to Scholarly Teaching as our SoTL project aims to aid academics in progressing from good to scholarly teaching. The goal is to increase the research output and promote the culture of research in teaching to enhance good teaching and improve student learning. The more we engage in scholarly teaching, the closer we will move towards the scholarship of teaching and learning. Subsequently, we will focus on publishing our research and presenting at national and international conferences.

With the establishment of the project, some academics showed interest and commitment, which made this project come alive in the Faculty. The previous Dean, Prof Heidi Hudson, supported the project, encouraging staff to participate and learn.

Since its inception, four groups of communities of practice (GCOPs) have been established to facilitate conversations in smaller groups. The key focus areas of these groups are curriculum design and renewal, classroom practice, academic advising, as well as interdisciplinary innovation in learning and teaching. Participants in these groups are mainly those who completed the Curriculum Renewal Programme (CRP) offered by the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL), another empowering initiative to enhance scholarly teaching.

The GCOPs are facilitated by colleagues who volunteered their time and will work with their teams to create lively conversations within the Faculty. This year, we look forward to welcoming more academics to get involved in one of these groups of communities of practice, sharing ideas and learning from other colleagues in our endeavour to enhance scholarly teaching in the Faculty. Dates of upcoming events will be communicated via emails and this blog.