Page 21 - DUT Excellence

CELT LAUNCHES THE DUT SIYAPHUMELELA
MAGUBANE’S BOOK EXPLORES LOVEIN THE ERA OF 2.0 MOVING THE MIDDLE PROJECT
The Centre for Excellence in Learning and students’ success.The plan currently focuses on
Teaching (CELT) at DUT continues to provide
the best learning and teaching strategies to students and lecturers.
CELT launched its Siyaphumelela (we succeed) 2.0 Moving the Middle Project on 24 February 2021 on Microsoft Teams, directed by Dr Rosheena Jeawon and Mrs Nalini Chitanand. The aim of the project is to contribute to developing holistic graduates with the acumen to be both adaptable and able to respond to a rapidly-evolving higher education, profession and world.
“The project focuses on understanding the multiple challenges that are impacting on students’ success, which creates a large middle cohort that remains in transition in academic programmes and identifying and implementing strategies for enhancing success,” said DUT’s Deputy Vice Chancellor: Teaching and Learning Professor Nokuthula Sibiya.
Project Coordinator Nalini Chitanand added that, “At CELT, in working and addressing this project,we have developed a collaborative and integrative student development approach for students’ success. The essential aspect of this programme is to understand the multiple challenges that are impacting students’ success, which create this large middle cohort that remains in transition with the academic programme. “Professor Makondo has already alluded to the idea of a programmatic approach, transformation and enhancing
implementing high practices as an overarching integrated learning and assessment strategy. The rst year of the project, which is from June 2020 to June 2021, is the research-based phase.We will then move to the doing section of Moving the Middle,” she said. Dr Sherran Clarence delivered a keynote message focusing on enabling powerful, sustainable change in higher education. Dr Clarence is a research associate in the Centre for Higher Education, Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL) at Rhodes University.
“Teaching and learning happens in complex contexts within universities shaped by a range of diverse factors that in uence how we engage in education.These factors include socio-economic status and what that means for prior access to schools, libraries, computers and other learning resources. They include ‘race’, gender and ability, which also in uence prior and current engagement with lecturers, peers, resources, etc. Context is key: to better enable the curriculum we design and the pedagogies and assessments we use, we need to understand the context we are working in,” said Dr Clarence.
Mr Sipho Zulu, as the high impact practices project leader, closed the webinar by thanking everyone who had attended.
Nikiwe Sukazi
Pictured: One of the speakers, DUT’s Deputy Vice Chancellor:Teaching and Learning Professor Nokuthula Sibiya.
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DUT EXCELLENCE 2021 // SEMESTER 1