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22 October 2020 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied
Prof Liezel Nel, who received the 2020 Excellence in Learning and Teaching Award in the category Research in Teaching and Learning, says this recognition of her work is undoubtedly an inspiration to continue her research with even more vigour and enthusiasm.
Prof Liezel Nel, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Informatics at the University of the Free State (UFS), was announced as winner in the category Research in Teaching and Learning at the 2020 UFS Excellence in Learning and Teaching Awards, hosted by the Centre for Teaching and Learning in September this year.

Prof Nel, who is passionate about the Computer Science discipline due to its ever-changing nature, says she not only constantly revises the subject material, but also the way in which she presents it to students. “In order to be an effective facilitator, I adjust my teaching and learning strategies based on the needs of my students and their pace and depth of understanding,” she says.

As an adjunct professor, she currently teaches Web Development and Internet Programming modules on both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Prof Nel also supervises master's and PhD projects in the field of Computer Science Education. 

She believes in a research-informed way of teaching that is sensitive to the needs of individual students in a diverse educational context. Prof Nel is constantly investigating innovative ways in which the teaching and learning experiences of Computer Science students can be enhanced. “My teaching philosophy is geared towards the empowerment of my students in order for them to take control of their own learning experiences,” she adds.

Best teaching experience

She is in the position of working with students who are entering higher education for the first time and is of the opinion that especially first-year students need to be exposed to the best possible teaching experience.

“My students and I work together to overcome many of the unique challenges they are experiencing in order to better prepare them on an academic and a personal level for the successful completion of their higher education journey and for a successful career in Computer Science,” she says.

Besides the role that Prof Nel is playing in preparing first-year students, she also participates in the development of postgraduate students. “By involving all my postgraduate students in teaching and learning-related projects, I believe that I am playing a valuable role in shaping a new generation of teaching and learning scholars,” declares Prof Nel.

Continuous excellence

Her work to enhance the learning experiences of her students has received both local and national recognition. Since 2009, she has received numerous awards, including the UFS prestige award for Excellence in e-learning, the UFS prestige award for Excellence in Teaching; and the UFS Vice-Chancellor’s award for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Prof Nel also received the National Excellence in Teaching and Learning award from the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa and the Council for Higher Education (CHE).

News Archive

Faculty of Theology hosts annual meeting of Society for Practical Theology
2015-01-30

From the left are: Prof Yolanda Dreyer (Chairperson of SPTSA, University of Pretoria), Prof Johann Rossouw (UFS), Prof Hussein Solomon (UFS) and Prof Johan Cilliers (Stellenbosch University).
Photo: Michelle Nothling

The privilege of hosting the annual meeting of the Society for Practical Theology in South Africa (SPTSA) fell to the University of the Free State (UFS) this year. Delegates from across the country recently convened on the Bloemfontein Campus to attend the event from 21 – 23 January 2015.

The three-day congress saw several high-profile keynote speakers discussing the topic of ‘Power of religion and religions of power’.

Dr Johann Rossouw from the UFS Department of Philosophy presented a paper on ‘Power, the state and the church in South Africa’. Dr Rossouw regards the cooperation between theologians and philosophers as integral to help us understand the time we live in. Twenty years since the dawn of South Africa’s democracy, “the gap between the country we were promised and the country we received is bigger than ever,” Dr Rossouw said. “A South-African Church … cannot but make her voice heard regarding this gap.”

Expert on conflict resolution and fundamentalism, Prof Hussein Solomon from the UFS Department of Political Studies and Governance scrutinised the compatibility of Islam with democracy. He warned, though, against “the labelling of a conflict as religious on the mere basis of its religious overtones.” Prof Solomon’s paper, ‘Political Islam: trends, trajectory and future prospects,’ not only advocated tolerance and political pluralism, but also pointed to the fact that it is “in the common good of all humanity” to avert a “Clash of Civilizations”.

‘God in granite?’ – Prof Johan Cilliers’ paper – investigated the phenomenon of the monumentalization of religion. Prof Cilliers from Stellenbosch University explained that monuments often have “spiritual character and iconic value, in the sense that it offers a space for the formation or discovery of meaning.” In his presentation he showed, though, that monuments – even those connected to religious motifs – “seldom escape the lure of power”.

The event was organised by the University of the Free State’s Faculty of Theology, Department of Practical Theology.

  

For more information or enquiries contact news@ufs.ac.za .

 

 

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