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30 July 2020 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Anja Aucamp
Dr Fumane Khanare opted to integrate poetry into her teaching practice, using innovative ways to keep the curriculum afloat and interesting at the same time.
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown has severely affected teaching and learning. Lecturers and students alike have been challenged to explore innovative ways to keep the curriculum afloat and interesting at the same time. Dr Fumane Khanare, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, has opted to integrate poetry into her teaching practice. Her Community Psychology students have shifted over the past few months from merely interacting with the course material to generating their own content.

Learning in the times of lockdown

According to Dr Khanare, the psycho-social impact of COVID-19 remains unknown as the world grapples with a backlog of information, accompanied by loss and grief. However, collaborative strides are being made in the right direction, considering that this is unchartered territory. “Recommendations advocating for online teaching and learning, bidding for free data, and laptops for the majority of students, especially those at the peripheries of a mainstream economy – and of course physical distancing-adhering wellness programmes – may enable effective teaching and learning.” 

Why poetry?

“Lurched in at the deep end and taking into account the students who are not well-equipped with the integration of information and communications technology in learning, is significant. This realisation led me to seek ways to help my students develop a deeper understanding and critical-thinking skills, as well as becoming self-motivated students amid COVID-19,” explained Dr Khanare.

Students were first tasked with analysing the poetry of Butler-Kisber (2002). Thereafter, they were required to write poems about COVID-19, underpinned by the Community Psychology in Education module. “The activity provided students with an opportunity to use and reinforce concepts learnt prior to the lockdown, monitor their own understanding and progress, plus motivate them to come to the lecture prepared – a function known as co-creators of knowledge,” she said.

The artistic creations of these students were circulated among peers for review, allowing them to move from the peripheries to the centre of knowledge production amid a pandemic. 

Digitising the education space

Beyond the classroom, Dr Khanare will attend the 2020 Women Academics in Higher Education Virtual Symposium. As the co-convener of the World Education Research Association-International Research Network, she continues to ensure that research-related activities continue, despite a ban on international travel.

News Archive

Projects of the South Campus inspire excellence
2014-12-18

The University of the Free State’s (UFS’s) South Campus in Bloemfontein runs several projects to make a difference in the lives of learners and educators in the central region. These projects are based on the very essence of the UFS – to ‘inspire excellence, change lives’.

Three projects which have been very successful since the outset are the UFS Schools Partnership Project, the Family Math and Family Science Project and the Internet Broadcast Project.

The Schools Partnership Project attempts to empower teachers by improving their teaching skills in critical Gr 10 – Gr 12 subjects (Physical Science, Mathematics and Accounting).

Poorly performing schools are invited to join in the programme. A mentor, providing guidance to teachers in the planning of lessons, transferring knowledge and creating a healthy learning environment in the classroom, is assigned to each subject teacher. Management and leadership skills are also improved.

Hercules Dreyer, Programme Manager, says the success of the programme can be seen in the lessons, the results and the progress which have been made.

“In 2013, the pass rate of participating schools has grown from 71.5% to 85%. We had an increase in donors and the project went from 22 schools with 12 mentors in 2013 to 72 schools and 34 mentors in 2015.”

The UFS Family Math and Family Science Project, which is already in its sixth year of existence, are extremely popular. This intervention programme focus on bringing about a better understanding of Mathematics and Science in learners, teachers and parents.

Dr Cobus van Breda, Programme Director of the Family Math and Family Science Project, says that judging by the feedback from teachers, it is evident that the programme is growing from strength to strength and that it is making a real difference in Mathematics and Science education in the early school years.

The UFS’s Internet Broadcast Project (IBP) has thus far received four awards for their successes. In this project, lessons in Mathematics, Accounting and Physical Science are broadcasted from the UFS’s South Campus through internet presentations to schools in rural areas.

“To date, the IBP catalogue contains over 2 000 video lessons and in 2013 alone, the 68 schools accessed and used these videos 69 305 times. The project has the potential to reach more than 40 000 learners and 1 765 teachers every week,” says Sarietjie Musgrave, Project Manager.

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