Call for Participants – Quality Assurance Short Course On Basic University Teaching Skills

The Association of African Universities (AAU) will be holding a short-term 5-day intensive training course on Basic University Teaching Skills to equip lecturers with the foundations for effective teaching at tertiary level through content on Educational Psychology, Educational Philosophy and Educational Sociology, Bloom’s Taxonomy, Teaching using ICTs, Quality Assurance in tertiary Education as well as Assessment and Evaluation. University teaching personnel regardless of their areas of specialization are therefore invited to attend the course. The training will be held from Monday the 14^th to Friday the 18^th of November, 2016 from 8:30am to 4: 30pm at a place in Airside Hotel, Accra-North, Ghana.

The cost of participation is US$400 per participant (Non-AAU Members) and US$300 per person (AAU Member Universities) payable well in advance of the workshop. The money will cover lunch, teas and contribute towards the venue costs.

AAU looks forward to your participation. In order to register please visit this link: https://www.research.net/r/QACourse

For any queries, please e-mail Dr Violet Makuku on vmakuku@aau.org / vmakuku@gmail.com or telephone her on +233 263 129 798 / +233 270 239 439

NB: This course will be offered to other countries in due course.

Background Information

Virtually all development players now concur that for any meaningful and sustainable economic growth to be realized and sustained tertiary education must be centrally placed in the development agenda of nations. Countries around the world are striving to build the sector as part of their priority strategic development plan. Indeed, building a tertiary education system is no more a luxury but a national and continental imperative critical for Africa’s development and global competitiveness. Quality and relevance of university education have emerged as serious concerns of the sector for some time now. In addition, worldwide research on teaching in Higher Education revealed that most of the lecturers apply poor teaching practices because they do not have the professional teaching qualification (Deusto University, 2015; Cervini, 2010; Chen, Sok and Sok, 2007).

As envisioned by the African Union (AU) and its Agenda 2063, the African Union Commission (AUC) developed Africa’s comprehensive ten-year Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA). This strategy is driven by the desire to set up a “quality system of education and training to provide the African continent with efficient human resources adapted to African core values and therefore capable of achieving the vision and ambitions of the African Union. In the framework of its mandate aiming among others at improving African Higher Education, Association of African Universities (AAU) as one of the key implementing organizations of CESA 16-25 is willing to contribute to an efficient “reorientation of Africa’s education and training systems to meet the knowledge, competencies, skills, innovation and creativity required to nurture African core values and promote sustainable development at national, sub-regional and continental levels”. Over the years, the Association has been championing innovations in collaboration with its member institutions since 1967. We believe that there are opportunities for us to continue working together to jumpstart and energize good teaching practices in African Higher Education.

It is against this background that the AAU is providing this short-term intensive training course on basic university teaching skills to equip lecturers with the foundations for effective teaching at tertiary level through content on Educational Psychology, Educational Philosophy and Educational Sociology, Bloom’s Taxonomy, Teaching using ICTs, Quality Assurance in tertiary Education as well as Assessment and Evaluation.

The AAU is therefore pleased to announce its 5 days QUALITY ASSURANCE SHORT COURSE on the theme: THE BASIC UNIVERSITY TEACHING SKILLS (BUTS). It will be initially hosted by the AAU Secretariat in Accra, Ghana and later spread to other African countries. The training series seeks to fulfil three of the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA)’s 12 strategic objectives which are:

1. Revitalizing the teaching profession to ensure quality and relevance at all levels of education (GOAL 1).
2. Harnessing the capacity of ICT to improve access, quality and management of education and training systems (GOAL 3).
3. Revitalizing and expanding tertiary education, research and innovation to address continental challenges and promote global competitiveness (GOAL 9). 

A) COURSE AIM

Impart knowledge and skills related to teaching and learning in higher education to those lecturers who have an interest in updating or upgrading themselves to new modes of teaching and knowledge dissemination in higher education. 

B) COURSE OBJECTIVES

• Share knowledge on the important endowments and characteristics of a good lecturer
• Equip participants with the background knowledge that informs the teaching and learning practices
• Impart knowledge and skills of the diverse ways of teaching and learning using various Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
• Make known to participants the recommended new modes of teaching and the various associated activities
• Discuss knowledge and skills on the management of tertiary education classes/classrooms
• Expose to participants the importance of students’ physical and socio-economic environments in teaching and learning.

 

C) COURSE CONTENT 

1) Aspects of a good lecturer

• Qualifications
• Personality/Characteristics

2) Classroom Management (Psychology and Sociology)

• Management of mixed ability classes
• Management of large classes
• Handling Multi-cultural classes 

3) Psychology

• Course content design (including topic arrangement)
• Test construction, marking and feedback
• Student Motivation

4) Bloom’s Taxonomy

• The Three Domains of the Taxonomy
• The Developmental levels

5) Philosophy

• Course content choice
• Recommended Learner-Centred teaching methods and activities

6) e-learning

• Students and digitization
• Overview of e-learning concepts
• Good practices in e-learning
• Where to start with teaching online and Professional Development for E-learning

7) Instructional Design

• Lesson planning
• Learning outcomes
• Assessment Strategies
• Activities that match the levels of cognitive development

8) Practicuum

• Teaching methods
• Pedagogy versus Antragogy (Adult based Learning)
• Video recorded Micro Teaching and Analysis of the Videos

 

D) WORKSHOP METHODOLOGY

The objectives of this course will be achieved through lead lectures, intensive participant interaction over carefully selected cases and other materials in a process facilitated by renowned Resource Persons.

E) PARTICIPATION

To ensure effective interaction and exchange of ideas, a maximum of 50 participants will be strictly observed, basing the selection on the principle of “first come, first served”.

Participation is open to all who are teaching in Higher/Tertiary Education institutions regardless of their areas of specialisation.