Developing Academic Staff Developers

Academic staff development practitioners from around Southern Africa gathered at UCT recently to discuss ways to build capacity in their work environments.

Dr Jeff Jawitz, head of the Higher and Adult Education Studies and Development Unit at the Centre for Higher Education Development organised the workshop as national convenor of the Professional Development special interest group of the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA).

"The workshop aimed at building the capacity of people responsible for the design and development of activities and programmes that support academic staff in the development of their teaching," he said.

Issues tackled at the two-day event included the link between academic staff development in teaching and improving student learning, researching and evaluating academic staff development interventions, and developing an institutional framework that supports academic staff development.

Jawitz said there are plans to follow up the workshop at the HELTASA conference in November.