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| Prof Shirley Walters |
Welcome to the Flexible Learning and Teaching Provision Action Research blog
We invite you to share some of
the resources that have been created through the life of an innovative action
research project on flexible learning and teaching in higher education. Please
share your thoughts about the practical and intellectual issues of how we
improve flexible provision opportunities for working students.
From 2012 to mid-2015, UWC and the South
African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), have been in partnership to improve
lifelong learning opportunities for working people. An intensive UWC, cross
faculty action research project has addressed the question: what
conditions need to change to give working people access to achieve success in
higher education?
The project responded to a key contradiction
which is that there is a national imperative to improve access and success in
universities within a philosophy and approach to lifelong learning, but in
several instances study opportunities are closing down. The question for
residential universities is then: can we think about teaching and learning
differently to respond to the complex lives of students, most of whom are
working? What does flexible learning and teaching mean? Can we imagine moving
beyond the binaries of full/part-time, day-time/after-hours, to have an inclusive
conceptual framework which takes the diverse spectrum of students into
account?
The action research has included working
intensively with three pilot sites in the faculties of Economic Management
Sciences (Political Studies), Arts (Library and Information Sciences) and
Community Health Sciences (School of Public Health). It has surveyed all
faculties to glean what colleagues mean by ‘flexible learning and teaching’ and
a report has served at Senate. In addition we have stimulated debates and
discussions across campus particularly through invitations to visiting
professors, Tara Fenwick, Richard Edwards, and Anne Edwards, amongst others. A
cross-faculty Senate Teaching and Learning Committee advisory committee, under
Vivienne Bozalek’s leadership, has provided feedback and support.
Several documents have been produced and
circulated during the life of the project, which ended in June 2015. Two
colloquia have been held to disseminate findings; in addition a popular booklet
and educational poster have been created for dissemination. Please contact us
if you'd like to receive copies.
Thank you for your interest!
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