For me, teaching is the impartation of existing knowledge, while learning is expanding and building on existing knowledge. There are two theories that support this concept of learning: social constructivism and meaningful learning. Social constructivism states that knowledge is constructed through society and that knowledge is a consensual domain. Two of the main proponents of social constructivism are Vygotsky (1962) and Piaget (1953). For Vygotsky, individuals and societies develop psychological tools in order to promote higher thinking similar to how they develop physical tools to extend what they can do physically. Piaget, on the other hand, studied how individuals develop thinking from childhood into adulthood and concluded knowledge is assimilated into what has already been learned by the individual.
Meaningful learning, although more controversial, refers to new knowledge that requires previous knowledge. Ausubel (1968) was the main proponent of meaningful learning and often focused on verbal learning and school children. This is often compared to Bruner's scaffolding theory. A difference between these two theories is that the scaffolding theory relies on structure more than Ausubel's meaningful learning theory. It also relates to Kolb's theory of experimental learning where knowledge is constructed by reflecting, conceptualizing and problem-solving on everyday experiences (both personal and environmental).
Despite my initial feelings of "otherness", I immediately felt accepted by the students and my colleagues at UWC. I noticed that the students have a thirst for knowledge and understanding and I experience them as more engaging and curious than in my experiences at Stellenbosch University. This, for me, begged the question: How to impart knowledge to my students?
One of the key concepts for teaching is the qualities of an effective teacher. In a study by Walker (2008), he identified twelve characteristics of an effective teacher. These are: prepared, positive, hold high expectations, creative, fair, personal touch, create a sense of belonging, compassionate, have a sense of humour, respect students, forgiving, and admitting mistakes. These are all noble characteristics to pursue when teaching. Throughout the website, I will present evidence of some of these characteristics and share experiences of when these characteristics were displayed. But there are two experiences I want to highlight here: an ECO232 lecture and an ECO335 lecture. These both have a direct relation to my teaching philosophy.
One of my most enjoyable lectures, thus far, was a discussion with my second-year Macroeconomic group on South Africa’s sovereign debt downgrade to junk status earlier the year. This was in 2017. This discussion showed me that the easiest and most relatable way to communicate my knowledge of economics was to make the material as applicable to the real world as possible. And a simple way to achieve this is to use news that they hear, read and see. For me, this experience relates to the characteristics in the following ways: it showed how positive you need to be about the economy (and more generally, situations you find yourself in) and how you can change it. I challenged the students to think about the problems facing South Africa's economy, which shows my high expectations of them. It was a personal touch - the students had not experienced such a debate in class before and it also created a sense of belonging. This was happening to them at that time. And I respected the students to create this space for them to have such discussions.
A second teaching and learning experience came in my third year International Economics course. One morning lecture, a student raised her hand right at the start of the session. She had concerns: the textbook did not adequately explain the mathematics behind the models which we were doing and we did not do the derivations in class. That coincidentally was the same lecture I had planned to discuss what I required of the students in terms of test and exam papers. I had also prepared additional exercises to show them what exam and test questions would look like. In that lecture, I showed them the exact steps to get one result of the model. (There are four.) It took the entire lecture. Afterwards, I explained, that to expect them to derive such a result in a test or exam would mean I can only ask for such a derivation and would be counterproductive to achieving the learning objectives. That to me is irrational and what I expect of them is to understand the theory in such a way that I can give them a scenario and they must be able to apply what will happen given the theory taught in the course. Since then, I have incorporated more examples to help prepare the students for tests and exams. This experience showed me how to communicate my expectations to the students, how to be compassionate and how to be adaptable. I am also working with another lecturer of the course to develop a mathematical guide to accompany the textbook's explanations of the theory.
Hopefully, I can continue to strive toward these characteristics and continue to impart as much knowledge as I can to students. I would, further, like to create a new way of thinking away from simply regurgitating information, but rather applying this knowledge to situations. I would like to excite students about their careers and what they can achieve in future. My goals for my students are to increase their knowledge about economics so that they see the connections between what they are taught in class and what is happening in the world around them. They should be able to apply these to their own worlds.
One way that I apply these theories in my lectures is to refer back to what they should have done before and where what we would do that day fit in with that. I also try to use daily newspaper clippings or news events as questions in tutorials, lectures and exams. This way students learn to apply the theory from the textbook to their world. For example, one of my essay questions for the third-year students was to apply the theories to President Donald Trump's trade policy and whether they think he can achieve his goals. This can be seen here in the ECO335 Module Outline. aid the students in achieving their goals, I outline what I expect of them for assignments or for a test.
Due to horizontal and vertical alignment done in the Department of Economics, the assessment used are tests, exams, tutorials and class tests. More information can be found under "Curriculum design and development". I attempt to apply Bloom's taxonomy (1956) when thinking about the assessment and at which level the assessments should be set. For example, a question set to first-years would ring "Discuss the four types of unemployment that can exist in the economy", to the second-year students "Apply and analyze the described situation using the IS-LM model" and finally to the third-year students "Use an appropriate graph to show and evaluate what the effect of this trade policy is on South African welfare". In my postgraduate course, I expect that students can evaluate and critique answers provided for a certain problem. This aligns with high-order thinking and higher levels of learning at different levels. For further evidence on this, please contact me for more information on assessments.