The purpose of the study is to explore the advantages of study groups for first-year engineering students in a challenged Global South context. The research aims to explore how the support and resources provided by the peer-led study groups can help students cope with the stressors and challenges that are often associated with the transition to…

Scholars have recommended hybrid learning to combat education problems in emerging economies due to their challenging contexts. It potentially offers a means to address growing demand without sacrificing quality or increasing costs. In this article we report on a new "hybrid" distance teacher education programme in which we sought to…

Academic development is a mammoth undertaking that requires collective effort from all stakeholders, extending beyond academic developers alone. As early career academics, we explore our experiences of academic development within our community of practice. Through a collaborative self-study, we reveal how our community of practice has bolstered…

Purpose: This paper aimed to determine the self- and co-regulation influences on the community of inquiry (CoI) for collaborative online learning. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative survey was used on a sample of (N = 626) enrolled postgraduate students in a South African Open Distance and e-Learning (ODeL) university. The measuring…

Institutional transformation and inclusion have slowly become more prominent in the strategies of historically white institutions in South Africa. Despite these efforts, progress towards these goals has been limited. In this article, we reflect on our conversations about transforming our curricula and teaching practices as an interdisciplinary…

Engagements in teacher learning communities (TLCs) in South African school settings have been predominantly face-toface. However, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, some rural teachers began resorting more to collaboration that prioritises the use of 21st-century communication technology. In this article we report the findings of a…

Most novice teachers enter the schooling system lacking confidence, with low levels of pedagogical content knowledge and teaching competence, coupled with a lack of gender-inclusive school practices. This study is located within the interpretivism paradigm and used interviewing techniques to elicit data from twelve commerce teachers selected from…

Unisa has embraced the use of online learning and e-tutoring as a new approach to teaching and learning in an ODeL environment. According to the Community of Inquiry Theory, a learning community is important to enhance the social, cognitive and teaching presences for online learning to achieve student success. Online e-tutor and student…

The COVID-19 pandemic imposed a quick change to online teaching and learning, emphasising the importance of the community of inquiry (CoI) framework in reimagining the quality of higher education in an online setting. In the study reported on here I focused on how lecturers adopted the CoI to enhance the quality of online learning and teaching of…

Training needs analysis assists in identifying the kind of training that an individual employee needs and ensures that the training addresses any existing problems. The South African Department of Basic Education has made different provision for professional development of Foundation Phase teachers. One of them is the support that should be…

This article was motivated by the need to academically frame and share the response of the North-West University (NWU) to the perceived increase of academic dishonesty during COVID-19. Within the ambit of the online (hybrid) teaching and learning approach that became dominant during the COVID-19 pandemic, the NWU established a Community of…

This part-reflective, part-conceptual article focuses on the issue of supervision models and the need to move away from the dominance of the traditional master-apprentice model which continues to persist in many social sciences and humanities contexts. Drawing on communities of practice theory, I critically reflect on my own PhD supervision…

Amongst the contemporary needs of societies in the fourth industrial revolution, are student-teachers who are adaptable, ethical, and literate in developing technology-mediated environments. Cultivating such teachers requires engaging them experientially in blended learning practices. We explored 155 student-teachers' experiences of blended…

The COVID-19 pandemic catapulted higher education institutions to shifting their teaching, learning and assessment practices. Universities globally were abruptly forced to close their doors and adapt to digital learning platforms with the intention of meeting students' learning needs. In a University of Technology (UoT) context such as the Durban…

The absence of a shared understanding of quality education for South African schools prompted this study to apply the capability approach of Amartya Sen to investigate the productive qualities of teachers. The study outlines the significance of integrating teachers' perspectives into discussions surrounding quality education in South Africa. More…