Implementation of a Teaching and Learning Model: At an Institutional, Programme and Discipline level at a University of Technology in South Africa

Pauline Cathleen Machika

Abstract


To improve the quality of teaching in a university of technology and toproduce the necessary graduate skills which will improve the economy of SouthAfrica (Altbach, Reisberg and Rumbley 2009), a teaching and learning model shouldbe implemented at three levels, namely theinstitution-wide, programme anddiscipline-specific level. Universitiesof technology are increasingly required to implement a teaching and learningmodel with an appropriate operational plan. Based on research that wasconducted at a South African university of technology, this article focuses onthe importance of implementing a teaching and learning model with anoperational plan, from the perspective of academic staff who experiencetensions at the three above-mentioned levels. Within the state of flux due tothe transition from technikon to university status, the University ofTechnology in question has experienced difficulty in positively changing itsinstitutional context to an enabling environment in terms of its TLM. Fourindividual interviews and nine group interviews were conducted with thirty-sixacademic staff members. The results show that a disenablingenvironment is created for teaching and learning at a university of technologyif the teaching and learning model is not implemented at an institutional leveland is not cascaded down to a programme and discipline-specific level within auniversity-wide operational plan.

Keywords


implementation, teaching, learning model,

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References


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