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Centre for Higher Education Development
Centre for
HIGHER EDUCATION
DEVELOPMENT
Dean’s Report
ASSOCIATE
PROFESSOR
NAN YELD
Dean of the
Centre for Higher
Education Development
T
his report attests to the commitment of CHED and its staff to the scholarship
of teaching and learning, and to higher education as an emerging field of
research and policy. CHED research arises from individual interest, as well as
institutional and national imperatives. In 2012, CHED staff published research
that was geared to investigating and developing educational theories and
practices that contribute to continual improvement in the quality of higher
education and educational development. Accordingly, the research dealt
with educational development issues such as multimodality, the role of
writing centres, academic writing and student voice, language and academic
achievement, and sociocultural perspectives on learning.
The research also reflects on innovative strategies adopted by CHED staff and
those from other faculties to improve teaching and learning. Some of the research
demonstrates the ways in which research and inquiry into aspects of teaching
and student learning is being integrated in an iterative way into the curriculum
design and development. This is clearly demonstrated by articles on educational
technology aspects, such as mobile learning, digital literacies, and podcasting. This
increased focus on educational technology in CHED research is very important,
given the worldwide recognition of the role of technology in higher education.
It is also important to note that much of CHED research for 2012 was published in
peer-reviewed, accredited local journals such as the
SA Journal of Higher Education,
South African Journal of Accounting Research, South African Medical Journal, Per
Linguam,
and
Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies,
and
international journals such as the
Journal for Higher Education, Teaching in Higher
Education, Educational Technology & Society, and Higher Educational Research &
Development
. A research highlight attesting to the standard and quality of CHED
research is the recent inclusion of Dr Lucia Thesen’s 1997
TESOL Quarterly
article
in the
SAGE Benchmarks in Language and Linguistics
, which presents collections
that bring together the most authoritative and influential research in language and
linguistics. The series is edited by world-leading experts in their fields and presents
the ‘gold standard’ for university libraries throughout the world, who are seeking to
solidify their linguistics reference collections.
The research mission of the Centre for Higher Education
Development (CHED) is to ensure that its educational
development work is based on rigorous and ethical research
that will serve the objectives of providing equitable access
to higher education, enabling social redress through higher
education, and strengthening the quality of teaching and
learning in higher education at UCT, in South Africa, and in
countries with similar needs.