2016 TAU Fellows.Enhancing Teaching and Learning at UKZN
Three UKZN academics are playing a significant role in enhancing teaching and learning through the Teaching Advancement at Universities (TAU) programme.
They are TAU Fellows Professor Suzanne Francis of the College of Humanities and Professor Fatima Suleman of the College of Health Sciences, and UKZN’s Director of Teaching and Learning, Dr Rubby Dhunpath, who is an advisor and mentor on the programme.
TAU, which seeks to promote collaboration across universities and disciplines, is guided by the TAU principles of reflective teaching, and self-directed and authentic collaborative learning.
Said Dhunpath: ‘The content of the programme is managed in terms of three core themes: excellent teachers, change agents, and scholars of teaching and learning. In the current period of discussions around transformation and decolonising the curriculum, having such a programme is crucial in developing academics as intellectuals with a transformative agenda.’
TAU participants, many of whom are experienced senior academics, are positioned to take on the roles of scholars, leaders and mentors in teaching and learning in their institutions or disciplinary fields, and to contribute towards the definition of what teaching excellence means in varied institutional settings.
TAU is funded through the Department of Higher Education and Training and endorsed by Higher Education Teaching and Learning South Africa.
Twenty-two South African universities have nominated participants in the programme, which in January 2016 ran its second residential week in Cape Town.
Raylene Captain-Hasthibeer