CHAPTER 1
GENERAL ORIENTATION TO THE STUDY
- INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
I am involved with Professional development of the academic members of staff at the Vaal University of Technology (Formerly Vaal Triangle Technikon). My job as a teaching facilitator in the Directorate for Institutional Development (DID) entails the offering of support services to academics with regards to teaching and learning. The Vaal University of Technology (VUT) has tasked the DID to be responsible for professional development of academics in the institution. As part of its mandate, the DID has designed policy for the professional development of academic staff. The VUT management has accepted this policy of the DID. The policy encompasses the professional development of the existing academic staff and newly appointed academic staff, including heads of academic departments.
Academic Staff do not participate in the DID programmes as expected. Academics cite a number of reasons for failure to participate in the programmes, or comply with the requirements of the DID policy. Reasons cited are that the demands of the policy are an equivalence of obtaining a teaching qualification, they are busy pursuing higher qualifications or too busy with research. These and other problems make it imperative that the DID should develop a model of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) that will accommodate the majority of academics in the institution. The model should be responsive to the needs of the academics and their workload demands.
Structured CPD has to be negotiated with the academics in order to ensure that efficiency in teaching and learning is successfully attained. The Department of Education (DoE 2001) highlights the need for higher education institutions to ensure that they improve the throughput rates of their students and also put
mechanisms in place to improve the quality of teaching. This has necessitated VUT to revisit professional development practices to ensure that academics do deliver the type of teaching that would promote student learning, and as a consequence, improve the throughput rates of the institution. Consequently, DID established professional development programmes that would provide academics with opportunities to hone their teaching skills. As most of the academics at VUT do not have a teaching background, DID provides programmes that expose these academics to, and equip them with, the necessary teaching skills to effectively fulfil their teaching role. This situation is not only unique to VUT. The same sentiments are echoed in conversations with colleagues, in the professional development units at other former Technikons.
This has prompted this study in order to address these problems that are experienced at such institutions.
- PROBLEM STATEMENT AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The problem identified is that the lecturers do not make use of CPD opportunities availed to them through the provision of professional development programmes that provide skills to assist with the improvement and delivery of effective teaching. This study thus attempts to respond to this challenge by investigating the following questions:
What constitute CPD activities for the University of Technology lecturer?
What other skills development activities are available for the lecturer, other than activities provided on the professional development programmes that can be classified as CPD?
What are some of the factors that impede the participation of lecturers in professional development programmes to promote good teaching practice? Does the status change from Technikon to University of Technology have any impact on the nature of teaching provided by Universities of Technology?
Have the teaching development needs of lecturers at the former Technikons changed since the status change to University of Technology?
Are there differences in the teaching and learning needs of University and University of Technology students?
- THE AIM OF THE STUDY
The basic purpose in this study is to design a CPD model for the University of Technology lecturer. This model should focus on ensuring that teaching at the institutions is effectively and efficiently implemented, so as to improve student learning and throughput rates. The model will focus on the promotion of effective teaching as one of the main functions of the lecturer.
- RESEARCH METHODS AND DESIGN
Qualitative and quantitative research methods were applied when conducting this study. The restructuring process of higher education in South Africa has resulted in five Universities of Technology remaining in the country. The initial phase (mini research project) of the study involved interviews conducted with CPD practitioners in two South African Universities of Technology. Documents on CPD practices from these two institutions and from three other Universities of Technology in the country were also obtained. The basic purpose of this part of the study was to gather data on the current state of CPD at Universities of Technology in the country. The data collected from this first phase of the research project, together with data accumulated during the literature review, was used in the design of the CPD model.
The second phase of this study included semi structured interviews with CPD practitioners, conducted at a representative number of Universities of Technology in South Africa. Together with interviews, questionnaires were sent to a representative number of lecturers in Universities of Technology in South Africa.
The feedback received from the interviews and questionnaires was used to improve the CPD model proposed in this study.
