Instructional Support & Services (DISS)
https://hdl.handle.net/10500/487
2024-03-29T10:45:34ZMonitoring workplace learning as means towards international accreditation and recognition of professional chemical engineering technicians
https://hdl.handle.net/10500/19811
Monitoring workplace learning as means towards international accreditation and recognition of professional chemical engineering technicians
Mateescu, Corina; Groenewald, Thomas
While workplace learning plays a significant part in engineering education the pedagogy and assessment thereof are still coming into being. This article aims at making a small contribution to the monitoring of work-integrated learning. The role of the Engineering Council of South Africa as an accreditation body, signatory of various international accords and the Dublin Accord, in particular, is considered. The path of engineering education, training and career development, in the context of the accords is illustrated. A common range of competencies is expected in accordance with the accords. Internationally, the structures and ways of engineering education differ substantially. In the South African context the criteria of the Council for Higher Education serve as guidelines for, among others, the work-integrated learning of engineering programmes. One criterion specifically pertains to monitoring. A qualitative study has been undertaken about the monitoring of the work-integrated learning modules of the National Diploma in Chemical Engineering. An earlier pilot investigation into monitoring served as an example. The administrative arrangements in the School of Engineering at the University of South Africa serve as backdrop for the study. The results of a purposive sample of 19 participants are presented.
2015-10-01T00:00:00ZQuality imperatives versus funding: A case of filial cannibalism in South African Higher Education?
https://hdl.handle.net/10500/10448
Quality imperatives versus funding: A case of filial cannibalism in South African Higher Education?
Groenewald, Thomas
Filial cannibalism involves the killing and eating of one's young. This presentation will give attendees an overview of the former binary higher education system in South Africa; the differentiated funding; the cooperative education foundations of current Universities of Technology and Comprehensive Institutions and the existing quality imperatives pertaining to work integrated learning. A comparison will be made with regard to the specific quality imperatives of, among others, the Higher Education Quality Authority and international best practices pertaining to work integrated learning. These include: stakeholder-inclusivity regarding curriculum design and development; the obligation to place students where work-integrated learning is part of the curriculum; effective management and coordination; provision of adequate infrastructure; learning agreements clarifying the outcomes and the roles and responsibilities of the institution, students, mentors and employers; mentoring of students; effective communication; regular and systematic monitoring of progress of students; and academic as well as workplace based assessment. The staffing and resource-intensive implications with regard to the stated imperatives will be elaborated. The realities of discretionary grants which are potentially available for workplace experience of students studying towards scarce skills programmes will be addressed.
The metaphor of ‘parental care, no care/total abandonment, and filial cannibalism’ will serve as vehicle to question the logic about non-funding by the Department of Higher Education and Training (as parent) of work-integrated learning parts of curriculum of certain higher education programmes (the younger programmes in the South African landscape).
Conference paper
2011-09-03T00:00:00ZSemantic and metaphoric reflection on the training of decentralized staff responsible for supporting students in terms of work-integrated learning : a distance education university scenario
https://hdl.handle.net/10500/2742
Semantic and metaphoric reflection on the training of decentralized staff responsible for supporting students in terms of work-integrated learning : a distance education university scenario
Groenewald, Thomas; Le Roux, Mia
This article provides both a current and a historical perspective, as well as describing the journey of a distance education institution. It contains a synopsis of the imperatives pertaining to work-integrated learning within higher education in South Africa. The article gives its readers a glimpse of the role of decentralized learner support staff at a distance education university in soliciting potential host organizations and placing students for their prerequisite work-integrated learning. It also contains an overview of a week-long seminar. The research entailed both a semantic and a metaphoric evaluation of the training. The findings include an analysis of semantic indicators of the reflection by participants and a review of the metaphors participants used to express their feelings about the seminar. The article concludes with the benefits message subsequently developed.
Journal article
2009-10-01T00:00:00ZBest Practice in Cooperative Education
https://hdl.handle.net/10500/2665
Best Practice in Cooperative Education
Co-operative Education; CTM Standing Committee
The competitive edge of technikons is founded largely in the practice of cooperative education. The World Association for Co-operative Education (WACE) defines cooperative education as a method of education that combines learning in the
classroom (theoretical studies) with learning in the workplace (experiential
learning). The importance of incorporating an experiential learning component into
the various instructional components is illustrated by the comment that a
competitive economy requires a close link between education and the world.
The Green Paper on Further Education and Training states that the curriculum and
qualifications framework of the future will require a profound shift away from the
traditional divides between academic and applied learning, theory and practice,
knowledge and skills, and head and hand.
The success of co-operative education programmes depends largely upon close cooperation with commerce, industry, government and the community. It is hoped
that this publication, which was compiled in a consultative manner with members
from each of these sectors, will provide guidelines for promoting co-operative
education and experiential learning at technikons and closer collaboration with
these sectors. In addition to outlining guidelines for stakeholders in the existing co-operative ambit, it is important to note that legislation (i.e. the Skills Development Act of 1998 [3] and the Skills Development Levies Act of 1999) provides opportunities for technikons to consider the challenges that lie ahead in the provision of skills programmes and learnerships. Although experiential learning and learnerships appear to demonstrate synergy in many respects, there are also subtle differences between the two approaches that need to be taken into account.
2000-01-01T00:00:00Z