Undergraduate Teaching

Over the years I have taught a wide range of students and courses. These have included:  second year students based at Goldsmiths College, University of London, Honours students at the University of Witwatersrand, third year students at the University of Cape Town (UCT), first, second and third year students, as well as postgraduates at UWC and more mature participants in short term courses run through an international NGO. Of all the students I have taught those at UWC have certainly presented the widest range in terms of the existing skill sets they bring to the course. 

Many of the students in London and at UCT came to the modules with experience of analyitical writing and thinking. They were well versed in synthesising material and knew what the lecturer was looking for in assessments, such as evidence of independent analysis, for example. This they had been taught, most likely in their schooling and all would have been outstanding scholars to get accepted into their degree courses. I have found at UWC there is a far broader range of students. Some are certainly well equipped to engage critically and effectively, and express this in academic writing, while others struggle with more basic elements of writing style, grammar and synthesis of academic arguments, and thus their critical thinking skills are often not well represented. 

The range of knowledge students bring to a course also varies widely; some read newspapers daily and can bring contemporary examples to class and assignments while others don’t. This is certainly challenging in terms of engaging and inspiring the whole class. I am faced with the question of how to stimulate the excellent, engaged students while ensuring the less experienced students don’t fall behind, and indeed are inspired by the course. This is particularly a challenge at the undergraduate first and second year level, where some students are taking the course as a requirement rather than out of love of the subject. 

The ability to teach into each student’s ZPD is perhaps the biggest challenge I face as a lecturer. Over the years I have tried several approaches. The first step, however, is to ascertain where the ZPD is for different students before, and consistently during, a course. One way I do this is by asking students in the first lecture what subjects they took in previous semesters. I try to gather information on their general learning experiences and knowledge. If for example the vast majority of students are studying a BAdmin degree with a major in Public Administration I know I may have to work more thoroughly with them regarding long essays and critical analysis or personal reflection as they may be more accustomed to short questions, with focus on core content rather than critical reflection. BA and Law students however may need less mediation in these areas but more knowledge about how political systems operate. 

In order to keep students motivated and engaged within their ZPD’s, and in line with decolonising the curriculum, I have found it useful to relate course content to the everyday lives of students. A key asset of many UWC students is experience of the ‘real world’. In other words, issues and concepts that we may cover in the module such as inequality, poverty and discrimination are experiences many are familiar with. In conversations with students I have found many have overcome, and continue to overcome great hardships, to attend university. Where possible I try to tap into everyday experiences and relate them to course content. Political studies is not always an abstract field, it can relate meaningfully to decisions students make on a daily basis. For example, I may ask them to talk in small groups about the idea of protest – why would they ever want to protest, about what, which audience would they target, what do they think they would achieve and why? They will then present back to the class. Many students will in fact have engaged in protest but may not have thought about the political theory surrounding their actions. This I make explicit in the lectures. 

Another method I use to keep students engaged is by introducing innovative teaching tools in first year that allow students to better grapple with material, while reflecting on their learning process. With a very large class (around 500 students) I have to ensure the lecture stays on track but that students are still engaged. Tools I have successfully used include within the first five minutes of class asking each student to write down a few sentences that answers a specific question related to their thoughts on a concept. This proves very fruitful for the first four weeks of each course and leads to more constructive thinking through the rest of the lecture.  It is also quite pleasing to see over 300 students quietly concentrating and writing their thoughts down each day. I also believe in participatory teaching practices and so created space for group work and plenary debates in each lecture. The techniques are well received by the class. First year lectures are generally very well attended for the weeks I teach, and indeed often there are not enough seats in the venue. The course evaluation included many comments such as the ones below:

• •         Dr. Anciano is truly an amazing lecturer who is very helpful and knowledgeable. She always puts in an extra effort to help the class understand, she listens to everyone and she helps them to understand why certain things work the way they do and why we have different opinions on the subject matter.

  •         Dr Anciano was not only a skilled lecturer but an enthusiastic and intelligent one. I thoroughly enjoyed her lectures and look forward to the possibility of being lectured by her again in the future.

  •         Dr Anciano was a very good lecturer, she was always ready for the class, always on time, encouraged the involvement of students in the class debates and in asking questions. She is good at what she does, does not rely on the slides to give the lecture, open-minded and allowed everyone to ask questions and feel free. She always put emphasis that one needs to put on their political hat at all times.

  •        Well I felt that Dr Anciano did something different put some "fun" to politics and because of that I understood politics far better than I did before and her method of teaching gets a thumbs up from me.

  •        She was open to all opinions, she helped us understand why we have those opinions and tried to teach us to help back up our opinions. She was also very energetic and friendly, she also took into account that we were all first years and that we just came from High school where the learning area was much different than university's. She tried to make us feel like we are always on top of what was going on in class, she also went into deep detail of a subject and tried to explain it in a different way so that we can understand it much better if she saw that the class was struggling. She was also always available for questions after class and listened to everyone's questions.

A further key challenge regarding teaching and learning with students is that many of them are not able, or choose not to attend lectures full time. This is often because they have to work to meet livelihood needs, or they have childcare responsibilities etc. I have found this to be a constraint at UWC far more noticeable than at other universities I have taught at. The concern here is that no matter how engaging and stimulating a lecture may be you are not reaching the full class. I strongly believe that academic achievement and lecture attendance correlate, particularly for students with less experience of critical writing and analysis. I try to create space in lectures to mirror, verbally, what we hope to see in written essays. Lectures provide spaces for questions, debates and clarification of reading material. Missing this time is detrimental to a student. I have tried several techniques to encourage lecture attendance, one of which is to require students to submit assignments in the first ten minutes of class. This has not had a marked increase in attendance as students give assignments to friends to submit or submit early. Next year I may try new strategies including mini tests in class or group presentations. 

Another important aspect regarding students’ learning needs is to address skills development in the form of writing skills, analysis and presentations. This I have done in different ways for different levels. At first year, I use a model developed in the Department of Political Studies, of scaffolding assignments. For example, the first assignment will require students to demonstrate an ability to take notes, followed by a synthesising assignment and then a written paper (see Appendix C.) At second year, early in the course I bring in an external presenter to talk about plagiarism and the importance of referencing other people’s work. Most students will have been exposed to this concept in first year, particularly through ALC, but it is useful to reinforce it. I try to instil an understanding of why plagiarism can be harmful, how to write to avoid copying other texts and how to express your own voice. Following social constructivism, in theory this approach should yield more results than simply imposing a set of referencing rules. I also follow up this lecture with a short test on referencing. 

Postgraduate Teaching

At a postgraduate level I have focused much attention over the years on skills development in research and analysis. In 2013 I taught research methods for Masters students in the first semester and then, in the position of extra-ordinary senior lecturer in the Department I was able to provide a selection of support mechanisms for post-graduate students (primarily Masters and PhDs). Each month we held an informal ‘support meeting’ for two hours to which Masters and PhDs were encouraged to attend. This meeting focused on sharing research experiences, providing encouraging moral support and clearing up any confusion about the dissertation process. As an experienced researcher I provide a sounding board for any questions the students may have. Subsequent to the meetings I often read individual student’s work and provided feedback, predominantly on research methods. These support meeting seemed to work well as the completion rate (and time to complete) of post-graduates increased noticeably. More recently, at the start of 2018, I designed and co-facilitated a PhD workshop on storytelling (See Appendix B). 

As a key part of establishing a culture that supports students learning needs the department also hosted three research workshops in 2014 for Masters and PhDs, which I was instrumental in designing and facilitating. The first workshop allows students to present their research topic; the second focuses on research methods in gathering data and the last workshop require students to present their research findings. The workshops are structured so that there are several small groups (approximately 3 students and 1 lecturer) who meet and present to each other for 2-3 hours. Then everybody joins in a plenary session and each student formally presents to the group for 5-10minutes, followed by questions. 

The department runs an ongoing seminar series, for which I was responsible in 2013 and 2014, with at least one seminar per month. All post-graduates are strongly encouraged to attend. Usually seminars are presented by an external speaker. Alternately a post-graduate may present their work before submitting their final thesis. Where possible external respondents are invited to briefly present after the main speaker. This is an important skills development opportunity for post-graduates as it exposes them to examples of excellence in research as well as giving them an opportunity to present their own work. 

A key aspect of teaching post-graduate studies (and indeed undergraduate) is to infuse your own research work with your teaching. I have done this through the design of POL 719, a course that focusses on South African politics and in POL 701 and POL 811, research methods courses. Here I link the syllabus to empirical research projects I have undertaken which both allows for real world application of theory and is a further attempt to decolonise the curriculum. 

Infusing technology into teaching and learning

In addressing student’s learning needs it is, in my view, essential to embrace new technologies available to teaching and learning practices. I think this is particularly relevant in a context where there are large class numbers and where students, as discussed above, may struggle to attend lectures. I infuse technology into teaching and learning primarily through the use of Ikamva. The Political Studies department was one of the first departments at UWC to pilot Ikamva and as such it has become integral to our teaching methods.  In my courses all readings and lecture slides are put on Ikamva and the site is used frequently for communication with students. In Semester 1, 2015, I also set up an online referencing test on Ikamva. Students had a week in which to complete the test and could resubmit as often as they wished. After their last submission they got online feedback on the questions. This test does seem to have ensured that students take referencing and plagiarism seriously as there were relatively few cases of plagiarism in the rest of the assignments submitted during the semester. 

I also use social media where possible. In first year I intend to put up Facebook posts and ask students what their first reactions are, and then get them to critically think through why can they came to those conclusions. Were they acting as ‘political analysts’ or parroting what friends had posted. In POL 231 I uploaded current news stories relating to these countries (often found through Twitter) onto Ikamva. Students were encouraged to follow relevant commentators on Twitter. I have also used a ‘twitter fountain’ (creating a common hashtag and projecting it) when I taught at UCT to allow students to post real time comments on the screen behind me while I lectured. This certainly kept up class engagement and allowed ongoing feedback. I also use Turnitin when possible, particularly in post-graduate courses. This allows students to monitor their own plagiarism and ensure there are no surprises after submission.

Using technology effectively to assist in teaching large classes is an area in which I need to do more work. I believe strongly in face-to-face teaching but recognize there is a need for mixed forms of teaching and learning to enhance learning opportunities for students.

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