A Glimpse on the Inside

Today was a fascinating day for the Teaching & Learning group! We had the chance to participate in a day-long retreat with the NMMU Teaching and Learning Committee Meeting (retreat) which included faculty (a.k.a. administrative staff), administrators, and a student representative. The retreat entailed a variety of engaging presentations on topics such as Peer Collaborative Learning, a proposal for a first year, year-long course (Earth Stewardship Science), Dr. Austin's presentation, Strategies that Encourage Organizational Change: Advancing a Teaching & Learning Agenda, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, an overview of a research project titled Factors Impacting on First-Year Student Success, and a final presentation by an undergraduate representative on ideas for curricular change. Infused with dialogue and debate, we were all pleasantly surprised at how the meeting moved forward and deeply engaged such a diverse group of academics toward united objectives. We had the opportunity to have rich discussion with a variety of faculty and administrators, sharing our opinions and learning first hand the successes and challenges facing NMMU. The proposed course had us all sitting on our hands to prevent ourselves from volunteering to help with the creation of such an amazing course! This course will infuse issues facing South Africa within various disciplines, offer a larger perspective of the continent of Africa as a whole, and will examine where South Africa fits (historically, economically, socially, environmentally, health, resources, origins, systems, etc) in a larger, global context! My head was spinning but boy was I inspired!  Informal conversations over lunch and tea breaks yielded insight to the merge of NMMU in 2005 to its current institution (merger of several universities), including post-apartheid history, challenges, tensions, successes, and oh, so much more! We ended the day with a wonderful T&L group dinner to reflect on our day and unpack some of our learning. We will all be up late tonight polishing our presentations and modifying based on what we learned/heard today. Tomorrow we begin our presentations at the university! Wish us luck!

Aside:  Our view at lunch was looking out over the sea with the sun shining and palm trees blowing in the wind!  It is BEAUTIFUL here!

 A large campaign to build Mandela values in the new generation aimed to build Mandela's legacy. Love it!

Cheryl Foxcroft and Dr. Austin brainstorming something brilliant! The woman, Amanda, in the background was part of Dr. Austin's first class (a week long) at NMMU! She was very excited to share her scholarship of teaching and learning with us!

 Inese and Michelle diligently taking notes during the retreat.

 Dr. Austin pointing out many "important questions" during her 2 hour presentation today.

The view from our restaurant at dinner (with Gangnam Style blaring in the background while the choreographed fountains danced)!