With regard to improving higher education feedback practices, there is an increasing interest in using the efficacy of dialogue rather than the more traditional unidirectional approaches. We build on this impetus by considering how the ethics of care can be used to analyse the dialogical aspects of feedback. By diffractively reading insights of Boud and Molloy [2013a.
This article uses the human capabilities approach to evaluate an institutional approach to teaching and learning at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). The human capabilities framework makes it possible to examine the impact of social arrangements and interventions on the expansion of valuable beings and doings in teaching and learning. The institutional approach at UWC which involved the development of a strategic plan for teaching and learning and a case study of the teaching and learning retreats for Heads of Academic Departments is examined using the normative framework of the human capabilities approach. The constraints and opportunities regarding the institutionalisation of teaching and learning are illuminated through an analysis of data from a human capabilities perspective.
Background. One of the more discernible needs that challenges universities is addressing the level of preparedness of students entering the higher education environment. Students expect to participate in active learning, while at the same time adopting a certain level of agency to successfully pass through higher education. Objective. To determine the relationship between student preparedness, learning experiences and agency of students in the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences (FCHS), University of the Western Cape (UWC), Cape Town, South Africa. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 266 (N=578) conve nience sampled 3rd-year students in the FCHS. Data were collected with an instrument constructed from items of evaluation from the departments in the FCHS and other validated instruments. Results. Findings suggest that 3rd-year students perceive themselves as moderately prepared on enrolling at UWC (mean (SD) 13.74 (1.86)); current learning experiences are favourably indicated (94.04 (15.32)). On average, students perceive themselves to be agents of their own learning (51.56 (8.79)). Furthermore, a significantly positive relationship was found between learning experiences and agency. Conclusion. This study broadens our understanding of the Vygotskian perspective of the zone of proximal development, where students bring their own knowledge, interact with lecturers who scaffold their learning, and then become agents in their own learning.
This article explores insights which the political ethics of care (Tronto 1993; 2013) offers to academic literacies development of students. Research on ethics of care has been conducted in contexts ranging from micro to macro levels. However there has been no research on academic literacies development using this lens. In this article, data on academic literacy development within a health sciences faculty at a South African university is re-analysed through an ethics of care lens. Curriculum and programme alignment, departmental relationships and ethos and institutional approach to academic literacies development are considered through this lens. While the initial research project focused on student acquisition of dominant academic literacies, this article explores the insights that care ethics can bring to a "transformative" approach to academic literacies (Lillis and Scott 2007) and argues that care ethics can make a contribution to the decolonisation of education.
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