Browsing by Author "Wood, Denise"

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    Crafting a meso practice course using elements of authentic learning for undergraduate social work students in South Africa
    (University of the Western Cape, 2017) Pillay, Roshini; Bozalek, Vivienne; Wood, Denise
    Many teaching and learning practices in higher education, including social work education in South Africa, tend to be characterised by a transmission mode of instruction, whereby knowledge moves from the expert educator to the student. This study investigates the extent to which an authentic learning framework can be used to improve the teaching of meso practice in social work to a class of 80 second-year students at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. A modified version of educational design-based research, was deployed which created a set of guidelines to inform future research and course design. Design-based research includes an iterative process, however, and the four-phased modified version of design-based research used in this study deploys just one roll-out of a redesigned course on meso practice, using the elements of authentic learning (Herrington, Reeves & Oliver, 2010). Phase 1 consisted of a review of the literature on meso practice education and the authentic learning framework. Phase 2 involved an analysis of practical problems identified by six educators and four field instruction supervisors, based on the way they teach and supervise students in the area of meso practice intervention. In Phase 3 the course was implemented and evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively by the student participants and four field instruction supervisors. Phase 4 consisted of a reflection on the entire process, to produce design guidelines using the elements of authentic learning and the inclusion of affect in course design. Mixed-methods research was undertaken, incorporating primarily qualitative data with quantitative data from a survey conducted with the students. Findings from this study have led to an augmented list of authentic learning elements, which includes the use of affect in meso practice and the development of guidelines for educators which have the potential to be relevant and applicable in other courses, contexts and disciplines.
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    Technology enhanced teaching and learning in South African higher education – A rearview of a 20 year journey
    (Wiley, 2016) Ng’ambi, Dick; Brown, Cheryl; Bozalek, Vivienne; Gachago, Daniela; Wood, Denise
    In the last 20 years, the South African higher education has changed significantly, influenced by global trends national development goals and pressure from local educational imperatives, in the context of a digitally networked world. Shifts in technology enhanced pedagogical practices and in discourses around information and communication technologies (ICTs) have had varying degrees of influence in higher education. This paper takes a rearview of a 20-year journey of technology enhanced learning in South African higher education. An analysis of literature view is presented chronologically in four phases: phase 1 (1996–2000), phase 2 (2001–05), phase 3 (2006–10) and phase 4 (2011–16). In phase 1 technology was used predominantly for drill and practice, computer-aided instruction, with growing consciousness of the digital divide. In phase 2 institutions primarily focused on building ICT infrastructure, democratizing information, policy development and research; they sought to compare the effectiveness of teaching with or without technology. During phase 3 institutions began to include ICTs in their strategic directions, digital divide debates focused on epistemological access, and they also began to conduct research with a pedagogical agenda. In phase 4 mobile learning and social media came to the fore. The research agenda shifted from whether students would use technology to how to exploit what students already use to transform teaching and learning practices. The paper concludes that South Africa’s higher education institutions have moved from being solely responsible for both their own relatively poor ICT infrastructure and education provision to cloud-based ICT infrastructure with “unlimited” educational resources that are freely, openly and easily available within and beyond the institution. Although mobile and social media are more evident now than ever before, teaching and learning practice in South African higher education remains largely unchanged.
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    The use of emerging technologies for authentic learning: A South African study in higher education
    (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013) Bozalek, Vivienne; Gachago, Daniela; Alexander, Lucy; Watters, Kathy; Wood, Denise; Ivala, Eunice; Herrington, Jan
    It is now widely accepted that the transmission of disciplinary knowledge is insufficient to prepare students leaving higher education for the workplace. Authentic learning has been suggested as a way to bring the necessary complexity into learning to deal with challenges in professional practice after graduation. This study investigates how South African higher educators have used emerging technologies to achieve the characteristics of authentic learning. A survey was administered to a population of 265 higher educators in South Africa who self-identified as engaging with emerging technologies. From this survey, a sample of 21 respondentswere selected to further investigate their practice through in-depth interviewing using Herrington, Reeves and Oliver’s nine characteristics of authentic learning as a framework. Interrater analysis undertaken by five members of the research team revealed both consistencies and differences among the twenty one cases across the nine elements of authentic learning. The highest levels of authenticity were found for the elements authentic context and task, and the lowest for articulation. Furthermore, there was a moderate correlation identified between levels of authenticity and the role played by emerging technologies in achieving the authenticity, showing a potentially symbiotic relationship between them.
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    The use of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) to facilitate authentic learning: experiences of South African social work educators
    (Stellenbosch University, 2015) Pillay, Roshini; Bozalek, Vivienne; Wood, Denise
    Pedagogies incorporating technology-enhanced learning (TEL) are growing in social work education. However, there have been few explorations of the effectiveness of use of particular pedagogical designs based upon authentic learning principles in social work education. This paper contributes to such scholarship on teaching and learning using technologies through the analysis of five qualitative case studies of South African social work educators in order to ascertain whether and how the principles underpinning authentic learning are present in their teaching practices. The paper concludes by arguing that the use of TEL in combination with the principles of authentic learning have the potential to support social work students become work-ready.