Innovative teaching celebrated and honoured at UCT

With award-winning teaching styles that attest to the power of innovation, creativity and inclusivity in academia, Professor Brandon Collier-Reed, the head of the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Mechanical Engineering Department; and Dr Bianca Tame, a lecturer in the Department of Sociology, were named as two of four winners of UCT’s Distinguished Teacher Award 2023. 

These two exemplary teachers, who transformed their lectures into spaces that nurture critical thinking, practical skills and deep student engagement, may come from two totally different disciplines, but both put their students at the centre.

Engineering a student-centred approach

Professor Collier-Reed’s journey into academia came unexpectedly when, during his master’s studies, he was invited to develop a first-year engineering course centred around hands-on learning. Mentored by a previous recipient of the Distinguished Teacher Award, Associate Professor Andy Sass, Professor Collier-Reed quickly learnt the importance of student-centred teaching, focusing on active learning rather than passive information transfer. 

“Our role is to create an environment for students to be successful with their studies,” he said. “This philosophy has underpinned my nearly 30-year teaching career and transformed my engineering courses into immersive, interactive experiences where students are participants, not spectators.”

To make engineering education both accessible and engaging, Professor Collier-Reed introduces tools and methods that connect theoretical concepts with real-world applications. He ensures that every class includes a tangible object, case study or example to help students relate abstract concepts to practical contexts. 

One such innovation, a classroom “backchannel” which allows students to ask questions in real-time, has revolutionised his lectures. This tool not only encourages immediate feedback, but also democratises the classroom experience, allowing students who may feel intimidated to engage more openly. 

“Opening up this channel of communication in the classroom is emancipatory, giving students a voice,” he said.

“Opening up this channel of communication in the classroom is emancipatory.”

Professor Collier-Reed’s commitment to inclusivity is also evident in his linguistic approach to teaching. Acknowledging the language barriers that some students face, he encourages questions in their preferred languages, with peer translation. This creates the opportunity for inclusivity, while also reinforcing his commitment to creating a learning environment in which all students feel that their backgrounds are valued.

“I encourage students to ask questions in the language in which they feel most comfortable. Their language is valued and should not be de-legitimised through a focus on only the dominant English discourse,” he said.

Context and collaboration

Dr Tame’s road to becoming a sociology lecturer was influenced by her involvement with projects emphasising collaboration and critical reflection. Her teaching journey began at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where she contributed to a Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) initiative that admitted community activists into academic spaces. 

“My teaching style is based on learning from a socio-constructivist perspective, where knowledge creation is collaborative and reflective,” she said.

Since joining UCT in 2015, Dr Tame has continued to innovate, leveraging her background in industrial sociology to make curriculum content both relevant and reflective of contemporary global and African social issues.

“I keep my curriculum relevant by focusing on current trends, my postgraduate students’ research topics, keeping abreast of current research among colleagues, and focusing on themes from local or international conferences and journals,” she explained, adding that she also encourages critical awareness of socio-economic disparities. 

Dr Tame’s teaching style is rooted in social constructivism, a model that emphasises collaborative and reflective knowledge creation: “For me, curriculum innovation is closely tied to my teaching goal, which is to challenge normative understandings of industrial citizenship and work. I work at creating a culture of learning by creating an environment that is accessible, nurturing and critically disruptive, without silencing students’ voices.”

Interactive techniques are key. For instance, she regularly uses “one-minute essays”, which require students to jot down quick reflections on key concepts. These essays serve as a basis for peer review sessions, helping students develop critical thinking skills, while broadening their understanding of the course content.

“I keep my curriculum relevant by focusing on current trends.”

In her efforts to bridge the gap between theory and practice, Dr Tame also encourages her postgraduate students to present at academic conferences, and participate in community-based projects through the UCT Knowledge Co-op. 

A continuous journey

Both educators view innovation as a continuous journey. Professor Collier-Reed highlights the importance of responsiveness and adaptability, encouraging educators to experiment and refine new approaches based on student feedback. Dr Tame, meanwhile, emphasises that curriculum innovation is an ongoing process: “We need to be willing to learn, relearn, and approach the learning space with humility,” she said.

Both have ambitious goals for further enhancing their curricula. Professor Collier-Reed is excited about the potential of projects like the Innovative Integrated Curriculum Project, which focuses on experiential learning and interdisciplinary problem-solving. 

For her part, Dr Tame is eager to implement more supportive structures, such as the “research wheel” model for postgraduate supervision, designed to help students navigate the research process with structured guidance.