​A diverse group of Stellenbosch University (SU) academics were the stars of the Teaching-Learning-Assessment (TLA) Awards held at Devonvale Golf & Wine Estate recently. 

In his welcoming address, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Learning and Teaching, Prof Deresh Ramjugernath, congratulated SU's “champions" and praised their passion for teaching and learning in service of society.  

For SU to achieve its vision, excellence in teaching and learning is paramount, Ramjugernath said. “Implicit in our vision to be Africa's leading research-intensive university is to achieve excellence in teaching and learning. This is our core academic endeavour. With these awards, we're not only celebrating individuals, but we're also celebrating every single member of staff at SU."

The purpose of the SU Teaching Awards is to recognise the contribution of academics who provide leadership in teaching, learning, and assessment in their disciplines and across the institution, thereby advancing the scholarship of TLA at SU, Ramjugernath explained.  

Rewarding academic staff who excel at TLA will lead to better practices, which will in turn positively impact human capacity-building, he added.  

Dr Antoinette van der Merwe, Senior Director: Learning and Teaching Enhancement at SU, echoed this sentiment and added: “We hope these awards will light a fire to ignite renewal and make professional learning the strategic game-changer we want it to be."

The TLA Awards are divided in two categories, namely Leaderly Teaching Scholar and Scholarly Teacher. The Leaderly Teaching Scholar Award is aimed at academics who contribute to the body of TLA knowledge by publishing on their teaching and professional growth. They provide leadership in TLA institutionally, nationally, and internationally. 

The Scholarly Teacher Award is aimed at academics who reflect critically on their teaching and professional growth, using educational literature, and open up their teaching to observation and peer review. 

Prof Faadiel Essop from the Centre for Cardio-metabolic Research in Africa, Division of Medical Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS), received an award in the Leaderly Teaching Scholar category. Essop foregrounds critical reflexivity as the core of his teaching philosophy, drawing on the way he thinks about both the nature of reality and the management of learning. 

In the Scholarly Teacher category, Prof Herman Kamper (Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering) and Mareli Rossouw (School of Accountancy, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences) received awards.  

Kamper's goal is to enable students to grasp threshold concepts and to learn the skills through which these concepts are applied to solve real problems, while Rossouw believes that how we teach is informed by our values and beliefs. Her approach to teaching and learning is therefore guided by her personal drivers of trust, personal development, passion, and critical thinking.  

Another way in which the University recognises and rewards outstanding academics is through the SU Teaching Fellowships. 

These prestigious fellowships provide an opportunity for academics who teach and are scholars of TLA to spend one to three years, with various forms of support, to focus on curriculum renewal, the exploration of TLA, and the dissemination of good TLA practice in their departments and faculties.  

The fellowships are funded by the University Capacity Development Plan.  

Academics who have held teaching fellowships up to 2021 are Prof Elize Archer, Prof Elmarie Costandius, Dr Berna Gerber, Prof Ian Nell, Prof Nicola Plastow (2015) and Prof Geo Quinot.  

This year, two SU academics have taken up fellowships. They are Prof Dennis Francis (Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) and Prof Nicola Plastow (Division of Occupational Therapy, Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, FMHS). 

Francis' research project will focus on the role of anti-oppressive pedagogies in addressing barriers to teaching and learning regarding homophobia and transphobia in secondary and higher education. Plastow will establish and then evaluate the impact of a community interaction project that promotes social participation and occupational justice for older people living in Bishop Lavis. The aim of her fellowship is to develop critical citizenship in her students, using a service-learning model. 

In 2022 three academics completed their fellowships: Prof Ingrid Rewitzky (Vice-Dean: Teaching and Learning, Faculty of Science); Prof Marianne Unger (Division of Physiotherapy, Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, FMHS); and Dr Marianne McKay (Department of Viticulture and Oenology, Faculty of AgriSciences). 

Current teaching fellowship academics are Dr Taryn Bernard (Extended Degree Programme, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences); Prof Debby Blaine (Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering); Dr Marnel Mouton (Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science); Dr Gretha Steenkamp (School of Accounting, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences); and Prof Susan van Schalkwyk (Centre for Health Professions Education, FMHS).  

SU also participates in the TAU (Teaching Advancement at University) Fellowship Programme, which is a national University Capacity Development Programme intervention. The programme aims to advance teaching quality and the professionalisation of teaching and learning in public higher education.  

It involves the professional development of a cohort of mid-to-senior level academic staff from varying disciplines at all South African public universities. Participants, who are disciplinary specialists, are familiarised with teaching and learning in higher education, introduced to Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research, and positioned as change agents. On completion of the programme, they are equipped to lead change processes relating to teaching and learning at their home institutions. 

SU academics who have held TAU fellowships up to 2022 are Prof Elmarie Costandius, Prof Ian Couper, Dr Berna Gerber, Prof Ian Nell, Prof Geo Quinot, Prof Faadiel Essop, Prof Ashraf Kagee, and Dr Marianne McKay. 

The two SU academics who have joined the TAU Programme for 2022-'23 are Dr Albert Strever (Department of Viticulture and Oenology, Faculty of AgriSciences) and Dr Nathi Gule (Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering). 

The TLA Awards Ceremony also included recognition of other TLA staff achievements in 2022 such as the SU Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Conference Prize Winners; the Fund for Innovation and Research into Learning and Teaching (Finlo) recipients; First-Year Achievement Awards; as well as academics who successfully completed the Scholarship of Educational Leadership (SoEL) Short Course, the (SoTL) short course, the Assessment Short Course and the Professional Educational Development of Academics (PREDAC) Short Course.